__label__3	Effective but too-tepid biopic
__label__4	If you sometimes like to go to the movies to have fun , Wasabi is a good place to start .
__label__5	Emerges as something rare , an issue movie that 's so honest and keenly observed that it does n't feel like one .
__label__3	The film provides some great insight into the neurotic mindset of all comics -- even those who have reached the absolute top of the game .
__label__5	Offers that rare combination of entertainment and education .
__label__4	Perhaps no picture ever made has more literally showed that the road to hell is paved with good intentions .
__label__4	Steers turns in a snappy screenplay that curls at the edges ; it 's so clever you want to hate it .
__label__4	But he somehow pulls it off .
__label__4	Take Care of My Cat offers a refreshingly different slice of Asian cinema .
__label__5	This is a film well worth seeing , talking and singing heads and all .
__label__4	What really surprises about Wisegirls is its low-key quality and genuine tenderness .
__label__4	( Wendigo is ) why we go to the cinema : to be fed through the eye , the heart , the mind .
__label__5	One of the greatest family-oriented , fantasy-adventure movies ever .
__label__3	Ultimately , it ponders the reasons we need stories so much .
__label__4	An utterly compelling ` who wrote it ' in which the reputation of the most famous author who ever lived comes into question .
__label__3	Illuminating if overly talky documentary .
__label__5	A masterpiece four years in the making .
__label__4	The movie 's ripe , enrapturing beauty will tempt those willing to probe its inscrutable mysteries .
__label__5	Offers a breath of the fresh air of true sophistication .
__label__5	A thoughtful , provocative , insistently humanizing film .
__label__5	With a cast that includes some of the top actors working in independent film , Lovely & Amazing involves us because it is so incisive , so bleakly amusing about how we go about our lives .
__label__3	A disturbing and frighteningly evocative assembly of imagery and hypnotic music composed by Philip Glass .
__label__4	Not for everyone , but for those with whom it will connect , it 's a nice departure from standard moviegoing fare .
__label__4	Scores a few points for doing what it does with a dedicated and good-hearted professionalism .
__label__4	Occasionally melodramatic , it 's also extremely effective .
__label__4	An idealistic love story that brings out the latent 15-year-old romantic in everyone .
__label__4	At about 95 minutes , Treasure Planet maintains a brisk pace as it races through the familiar story .
__label__2	However , it lacks grandeur and that epic quality often associated with Stevenson 's tale as well as with earlier Disney efforts .
__label__4	It helps that Lil Bow Wow ... tones down his pint-sized gangsta act to play someone who resembles a real kid .
__label__5	Guaranteed to move anyone who ever shook , rattled , or rolled .
__label__5	A masterful film from a master filmmaker , unique in its deceptive grimness , compelling in its fatalist worldview .
__label__3	Light , cute and forgettable .
__label__4	If there 's a way to effectively teach kids about the dangers of drugs , I think it 's in projects like the ( unfortunately R-rated ) Paid .
__label__4	While it would be easy to give Crush the new title of Two Weddings and a Funeral , it 's a far more thoughtful film than any slice of Hugh Grant whimsy .
__label__2	Though everything might be literate and smart , it never took off and always seemed static .
__label__4	Cantet perfectly captures the hotel lobbies , two-lane highways , and roadside cafes that permeate Vincent 's days
__label__4	Ms. Fulford-Wierzbicki is almost spooky in her sulky , calculating Lolita turn .
__label__4	Though it is by no means his best work , Laissez-Passer is a distinguished and distinctive effort by a bona-fide master , a fascinating film replete with rewards to be had by all willing to make the effort to reap them .
__label__2	Like most Bond outings in recent years , some of the stunts are so outlandish that they border on being cartoonlike .
__label__3	A heavy reliance on CGI technology is beginning to creep into the series .
__label__5	Newton draws our attention like a magnet , and acts circles around her better known co-star , Mark Wahlberg .
__label__1	The story loses its bite in a last-minute happy ending that 's even less plausible than the rest of the picture .
__label__5	Much of the way , though , this is a refreshingly novel ride .
__label__5	Fuller would surely have called this gutsy and at times exhilarating movie a great yarn .
__label__4	The film makes a strong case for the importance of the musicians in creating the Motown sound .
__label__3	Karmen moves like rhythm itself , her lips chanting to the beat , her long , braided hair doing little to wipe away the jeweled beads of sweat .
__label__5	Gosling provides an amazing performance that dwarfs everything else in the film .
__label__4	A real movie , about real people , that gives us a rare glimpse into a culture most of us do n't know .
__label__5	Tender yet lacerating and darkly funny fable .
__label__4	May be spoofing an easy target -- those old ' 50 's giant creature features -- but ... it acknowledges and celebrates their cheesiness as the reason why people get a kick out of watching them today .
__label__4	An engaging overview of Johnson 's eccentric career .
__label__4	In its ragged , cheap and unassuming way , the movie works .
__label__4	Some actors have so much charisma that you 'd be happy to listen to them reading the phone book .
__label__5	Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock are two such likeable actors .
__label__4	Sandra Nettelbeck beautifully orchestrates the transformation of the chilly , neurotic , and self-absorbed Martha as her heart begins to open .
__label__4	Behind the snow games and lovable Siberian huskies ( plus one sheep dog ) , the picture hosts a parka-wrapped dose of heart .
__label__4	Everytime you think Undercover Brother has run out of steam , it finds a new way to surprise and amuse .
__label__3	Manages to be original , even though it rips off many of its ideas .
__label__4	A pleasant enough movie , held together by skilled ensemble actors .
__label__4	This is the best American movie about troubled teens since 1998 's Whatever .
__label__3	Disney has always been hit-or-miss when bringing beloved kids ' books to the screen ... Tuck Everlasting is a little of both .
__label__4	The animated subplot keenly depicts the inner struggles of our adolescent heroes - insecure , uncontrolled , and intense .
__label__4	The invincible Werner Herzog is alive and well and living in LA
__label__3	Morton is a great actress portraying a complex character , but Morvern Callar grows less compelling the farther it meanders from its shocking start .
__label__2	Son of the Bride may be a good half-hour too long but comes replete with a flattering sense of mystery and quietness .
__label__4	A simmering psychological drama in which the bursts of sudden violence are all the more startling for the slow buildup that has preceded them .
__label__5	A taut , intelligent psychological drama .
__label__5	A truly moving experience , and a perfect example of how art -- when done right -- can help heal , clarify , and comfort .
__label__5	This delicately observed story , deeply felt and masterfully stylized , is a triumph for its maverick director .
__label__5	At heart the movie is a deftly wrought suspense yarn whose richer shadings work as coloring rather than substance .
__label__3	The appearance of Treebeard and Gollum 's expanded role will either have you loving what you 're seeing , or rolling your eyes .
__label__5	I loved it !
__label__5	Gollum 's ` performance ' is incredible !
__label__5	If this movie were a book , it would be a page-turner , you ca n't wait to see what happens next .
__label__4	Haneke challenges us to confront the reality of sexual aberration .
__label__2	Absorbing and disturbing -- perhaps more disturbing than originally intended -- but a little clarity would have gone a long way .
__label__5	It 's the best film of the year so far , the benchmark against which all other Best Picture contenders should be measured .
__label__4	Painful to watch , but viewers willing to take a chance will be rewarded with two of the year 's most accomplished and riveting film performances .
__label__4	This is a startling film that gives you a fascinating , albeit depressing view of Iranian rural life close to the Iraqi border .
__label__3	A few artsy flourishes aside , Narc is as gritty as a movie gets these days .
__label__4	While The Isle is both preposterous and thoroughly misogynistic , its vistas are incredibly beautiful to look at .
__label__5	Together , Tok and O orchestrate a buoyant , darkly funny dance of death .
__label__4	In the process , they demonstrate that there 's still a lot of life in Hong Kong cinema .
__label__4	Director Kapur is a filmmaker with a real flair for epic landscapes and adventure , and this is a better film than his earlier English-language movie , the overpraised Elizabeth .
__label__5	The movie is a blast of educational energy , as bouncy animation and catchy songs escort you through the entire 85 minutes .
__label__5	A sports movie with action that 's exciting on the field and a story you care about off it .
__label__5	Doug Liman , the director of Bourne , directs the traffic well , gets a nice wintry look from his locations , absorbs us with the movie 's spycraft and uses Damon 's ability to be focused and sincere .
__label__5	The tenderness of the piece is still intact .
__label__4	Katz uses archival footage , horrifying documents of lynchings , still photographs and charming old reel-to-reel recordings of Meeropol entertaining his children to create his song history , but most powerful of all is the song itself
__label__4	Like the film 's almost anthropologically detailed realization of early - '80s suburbia , it 's significant without being overstated .
__label__2	While McFarlane 's animation lifts the film firmly above the level of other coming-of-age films ... it 's also so jarring that it 's hard to get back into the boys ' story .
__label__4	If nothing else , this movie introduces a promising , unusual kind of psychological horror .
__label__1	In a normal screen process , these bromides would be barely enough to sustain an interstitial program on the Discovery Channel .
__label__4	But in Imax 3-D , the clichés disappear into the vertiginous perspectives opened up by the photography .
__label__4	Writer-director Burger imaginatively fans the embers of a dormant national grief and curiosity that has calcified into chronic cynicism and fear .
__label__5	... a roller-coaster ride of a movie
__label__3	I enjoyed Time of Favor while I was watching it , but I was surprised at how quickly it faded from my memory .
__label__5	Chicago is sophisticated , brash , sardonic , completely joyful in its execution .
__label__4	Steve Irwin 's method is Ernest Hemmingway at accelerated speed and volume .
__label__5	A refreshing Korean film about five female high school friends who face an uphill battle when they try to take their relationships into deeper waters .
__label__4	On the surface , it 's a lovers-on-the-run crime flick , but it has a lot in common with Piesiewicz 's and Kieslowski 's earlier work , films like The Double Life of Veronique .
__label__4	The values that have held the Enterprise crew together through previous adventures and perils do so again-courage , self-sacrifice and patience under pressure .
__label__5	If it 's possible for a sequel to outshine the original , then SL2 does just that .
__label__4	A romantic comedy that operates by the rules of its own self-contained universe .
__label__4	4 friends , 2 couples , 2000 miles , and all the Pabst Blue Ribbon beer they can drink - it 's the ultimate redneck road-trip .
__label__5	The film is often filled with a sense of pure wonderment and excitement not often seen in today 's cinema du sarcasm
__label__4	It might be tempting to regard Mr. Andrew and his collaborators as oddballs , but Mr. Earnhart 's quizzical , charming movie allows us to see them , finally , as artists .
__label__5	A feel-good picture in the best sense of the term .
__label__4	Edited and shot with a syncopated style mimicking the work of his subjects , Pray turns the idea of the documentary on its head , making it rousing , invigorating fun lacking any MTV puffery .
__label__4	A mostly intelligent , engrossing and psychologically resonant suspenser .
__label__3	It 's this memory-as-identity obviation that gives Secret Life its intermittent unease , reaffirming that long-held illusions are indeed reality , and that erasing them recasts the self .
__label__3	Hip-hop has a history , and it 's a metaphor for this love story .
__label__5	In scope , ambition and accomplishment , Children of the Century ... takes Kurys ' career to a whole new level .
__label__4	This may not have the dramatic gut-wrenching impact of other Holocaust films , but it 's a compelling story , mainly because of the way it 's told by the people who were there .
__label__3	Between the drama of Cube ?
__label__5	s personal revelations regarding what the shop means in the big picture , iconic characters gambol fluidly through the story , with charming results .
__label__4	A gentle , compassionate drama about grief and healing .
__label__2	Somewhere short of Tremors on the modern B-scene : neither as funny nor as clever , though an agreeably unpretentious way to spend ninety minutes .
__label__4	Digital-video documentary about stand-up comedians is a great glimpse into a very different world .
__label__3	Unlike most teen flicks , Swimming takes its time to tell its story , casts mostly little-known performers in key roles , and introduces some intriguing ambiguity .
__label__4	An enthralling , playful film that constantly frustrates our desire to know the ` truth ' about this man , while deconstructing the very format of the biography in a manner that Derrida would doubtless give his blessing to .
__label__5	It 's obviously struck a responsive chord with many South Koreans , and should work its magic in other parts of the world .
__label__5	Run , do n't walk , to see this barbed and bracing comedy on the big screen .
__label__5	A classy item by a legend who may have nothing left to prove but still has the chops and drive to show how its done .
__label__3	It is nature against progress .
__label__4	In Fessenden 's horror trilogy , this theme has proved important to him and is especially so in the finale .
__label__4	It 's not exactly a gourmet meal but the fare is fair , even coming from the drive-thru .
__label__5	This is what IMAX was made for : Strap on a pair of 3-D goggles , shut out the real world , and take a vicarious voyage to the last frontier -- space .
__label__4	Merely as a technical , logistical feat , Russian Ark marks a cinematic milestone .
__label__4	( Schweiger is ) talented and terribly charismatic , qualities essential to both movie stars and social anarchists .
__label__2	It 's a great deal of sizzle and very little steak .
__label__5	But what spectacular sizzle it is !
__label__5	... In this incarnation its fizz is infectious .
__label__4	An original gem about an obsession with time .
__label__5	It will delight newcomers to the story and those who know it from bygone days .
__label__4	Gloriously goofy ( and gory ) midnight movie stuff .
__label__5	The film overcomes the regular minefield of coming-of-age cliches with potent doses of honesty and sensitivity .
__label__4	If your senses have n't been dulled by slasher films and gorefests , if you 're a connoisseur of psychological horror , this is your ticket .
__label__4	It 's a minor comedy that tries to balance sweetness with coarseness , while it paints a sad picture of the singles scene .
__label__5	It is intensely personal and yet -- unlike Quills -- deftly shows us the temper of the times .
__label__4	As lo-fi as the special effects are , the folks who cobbled Nemesis together indulge the force of humanity over hardware in a way that George Lucas has long forgotten .
__label__2	Like Mike does n't win any points for originality .
__label__4	It does succeed by following a feel-good formula with a winning style , and by offering its target audience of urban kids some welcome role models and optimism .
__label__4	It 's a hoot and a half , and a great way for the American people to see what a candidate is like when he 's not giving the same 15-cent stump speech .
__label__4	Far from perfect , but its heart is in the right place ... innocent and well-meaning .
__label__4	A sad , superior human comedy played out on the back roads of life .
__label__5	Waydowntown is by no means a perfect film , but its boasts a huge charm factor and smacks of originality .
__label__5	Tim Allen is great in his role but never hogs the scenes from his fellow cast , as there are plenty of laughs and good lines for everyone in this comedy .
__label__4	More a load of enjoyable , Conan-esque claptrap than the punishing , special-effects soul assaults the Mummy pictures represent .
__label__4	Enormously likable , partly because it is aware of its own grasp of the absurd .
__label__4	Here 's a British flick gleefully unconcerned with plausibility , yet just as determined to entertain you .
__label__4	It 's an old story , but a lively script , sharp acting and partially animated interludes make Just a Kiss seem minty fresh .
__label__4	Must be seen to be believed .
__label__2	Ray Liotta and Jason Patric do some of their best work in their underwritten roles , but do n't be fooled : Nobody deserves any prizes here .
__label__5	Everything that has to do with Yvan and Charlotte , and everything that has to do with Yvan 's rambunctious , Jewish sister and her non-Jew husband , feels funny and true .
__label__5	The year 's happiest surprise , a movie that deals with a real subject in an always surprising way .
__label__5	Fans of Behan 's work and of Irish movies in general will be rewarded by Borstal Boy .
__label__2	Its mysteries are transparently obvious , and it 's too slowly paced to be a thriller .
__label__5	( But it 's ) worth recommending because of two marvelous performances by Michael Caine and Brendan Fraser .
__label__4	The film is faithful to what one presumes are the book 's twin premises -- that we become who we are on the backs of our parents , but we have no idea who they were at our age ; and that time is a fleeting and precious commodity no matter how old you are .
__label__4	Stephen Earnhart 's homespun documentary Mule Skinner Blues has nothing but love for its posse of trailer park denizens .
__label__4	A solidly seaworthy chiller .
__label__4	If you can get past the fantastical aspects and harsh realities of `` The Isle '' you 'll get a sock-you-in-the-eye flick that is a visual tour-de-force and a story that is unlike any you will likely see anywhere else .
__label__4	There are as many misses as hits , but ultimately , it finds humor in the foibles of human behavior , and it 's a welcome return to the roots of a genre that should depend on surprises .
__label__5	A well-made thriller with a certain level of intelligence and non-reactionary morality .
__label__4	There 's enough science to make it count as educational , and enough beauty to make it unforgettable .
__label__3	Remains a solid , if somewhat heavy-handed , account of the near-disaster ... done up by Howard with a steady , if not very imaginative , hand .
__label__4	Makmalbaf follows a resolutely realistic path in this uncompromising insight into the harsh existence of the Kurdish refugees of Iran 's borderlands .
__label__4	For a good chunk of its running time , Trapped is an effective and claustrophobic thriller .
__label__4	Most of Crush is a clever and captivating romantic comedy with a welcome pinch of tartness .
__label__4	Nair does capture the complexity of a big family and its trials and tribulations ...
__label__3	The seaside splendor and shallow , beautiful people are nice to look at while you wait for the story to get going .
__label__5	Rare is the ` urban comedy ' that even attempts the insight and honesty of this disarming indie .
__label__5	Ranks among Willams ' best screen work .
__label__5	Engagingly captures the maddening and magnetic ebb and flow of friendship .
__label__4	An experience so engrossing it is like being buried in a new environment .
__label__5	It 's traditional moviemaking all the way , but it 's done with a lot of careful period attention as well as some very welcome wit .
__label__3	Maybe it 's just because this past year has seen the release of some of the worst film comedies in decades ... But honestly , Analyze That really is n't all that bad .
__label__4	A droll , well-acted , character-driven comedy with unexpected deposits of feeling .
__label__5	This is simply the most fun you 'll ever have with a documentary !
__label__5	A very funny movie .
__label__1	Watching Haneke 's film is , aptly enough , a challenge and a punishment .
__label__5	But watching Huppert , a great actress tearing into a landmark role , is riveting .
__label__4	A cop story that understands the medium amazingly well .
__label__4	Britney has been delivered to the big screen safe and sound , the way we like our 20-year-old superstar girls to travel on the fame freeway .
__label__4	Those outside show business will enjoy a close look at people they do n't really want to know .
__label__3	The kind of nervous film that will either give you a mild headache or exhilarate you .
__label__4	Watching Beanie and his gang put together his slasher video from spare parts and borrowed materials is as much fun as it must have been for them to make it .
__label__5	Children may not understand everything that happens -- I 'm not sure even Miyazaki himself does -- but they will almost certainly be fascinated , and undoubtedly delighted .
__label__5	A fascinating and fun film .
__label__5	Tadpole is a sophisticated , funny and good-natured treat , slight but a pleasure .
__label__4	This insightful , Oscar-nominated documentary , in which children on both sides of the ever-escalating conflict have their say away from watchful parental eyes , gives peace yet another chance .
__label__5	I admired this work a lot .
__label__4	Whether you 're moved and love it , or bored or frustrated by the film , you 'll still feel something .
__label__5	... there are enough moments of heartbreaking honesty to keep one glued to the screen .
__label__4	My goodness , Queen Latifah has a lot to offer and she seemed to have no problem flaunting her natural gifts .
__label__4	She must have a very strong back .
__label__5	A smart , sweet and playful romantic comedy .
__label__4	Without heavy-handedness , Dong provides perspective with his intelligent grasp of human foibles and contradictions .
__label__4	Solid , lump-in-the-throat family entertainment that derives its power by sticking to the facts .
__label__5	As an entertainment , the movie keeps you diverted and best of all , it lightens your wallet without leaving a sting .
__label__4	It is interesting and fun to see Goodall and her chimpanzees on the bigger-than-life screen .
__label__3	It wo n't bust your gut -- and it 's not intended to -- it 's merely a blandly cinematic surgical examination of what makes a joke a joke .
__label__4	A somewhat crudely constructed but gripping , questing look at a person so racked with self-loathing , he becomes an enemy to his own race .
__label__4	It extends the writings of Jean Genet and John Rechy , the films of Fassbinder , perhaps even the nocturnal works of Goya .
__label__4	Narc may not get an ` A ' for originality , but it wears its B-movie heritage like a badge of honor .
__label__5	With the film 's striking ending , one realizes that we have a long way to go before we fully understand all the sexual permutations involved .
__label__4	( Drumline ) is entertaining for what it does , and admirable for what it does n't do .
__label__4	At its best early on as it plays the culture clashes between the brothers .
__label__4	An unabashedly schmaltzy and thoroughly enjoyable true story .
__label__4	A thoughtful look at a painful incident that made headlines in 1995 .
__label__4	Tsai Ming-liang has taken his trademark style and refined it to a crystalline point .
__label__3	Purely propaganda , a work of unabashed hero worship , it is nonetheless -- and likely inadvertently -- a timely and invaluable implicit reminder of the role that U.S. foreign policy has played in the rise of Castro .
__label__4	Now trimmed by about 20 minutes , this lavish three-year-old production has enough grandeur and scale to satisfy as grown-up escapism .
__label__4	We get some truly unique character studies and a cross-section of Americana that Hollywood could n't possibly fictionalize and be believed .
__label__3	Though this film can be clumsy , its ambitions are equally -- and admirably -- uncommercial .
__label__5	Daring , mesmerizing and exceedingly hard to forget .
__label__4	Moore 's performance impresses almost as much as her work with Haynes in 1995 's Safe .
__label__5	Visits spy-movie territory like a novel you ca n't put down , examines a footnote to history seldom brought to light on the screen , and keeps you guessing from first frame to last .
__label__4	An absorbing , slice-of-depression life that touches nerves and rings true .
__label__5	Mr. Parker has brilliantly updated his source and grasped its essence , composing a sorrowful and hilarious tone poem about alienated labor , or an absurdist workplace sitcom .
__label__5	The result is something quite fresh and delightful .
__label__4	All but the most persnickety preteens should enjoy this nonthreatening but thrilling adventure .
__label__3	Despite its many infuriating flaws -- not the least of which is Amy 's self-absorbed personality -- Amy 's O 's honesty will win you over .
__label__5	This is one of Polanski 's best films .
__label__4	Day is not a great Bond movie , but it is a good Bond movie , which still makes it much better than your typical Bond knock-offs .
__label__3	Polished Korean political-action film is just as good -- and bad -- as Hollywood action epics .
__label__2	Is this progress ?
__label__4	Elling , portrayed with quiet fastidiousness by Per Christian Ellefsen , is a truly singular character , one whose frailties are only slightly magnified versions of the ones that vex nearly everyone .
__label__5	Denis and co-writer Michele Petin 's impeccable screenplay penetrates with a rawness that that is both unflinching and tantalizing .
__label__5	Lead provocatuers Testud and Parmentier give superlative performances
__label__4	An absorbing trip into the minds and motivations of people under stress as well as a keen , unsentimental look at variations on the theme of motherhood .
__label__4	I admired it , particularly that unexpected downer of an ending .
__label__5	The passions aroused by the discord between old and new cultures are set against the strange , stark beauty of the Mideast desert , so lovingly and perceptively filmed that you can almost taste the desiccated air .
__label__5	Remarkably accessible and affecting .
__label__2	Never mind whether you buy the stuff about Barris being a CIA hit man .
__label__5	The kooky yet shadowy vision Clooney sustains throughout is daring , inventive and impressive .
__label__5	A triumph of art direction over narrative , but what art direction !
__label__3	Behan himself knew how to spin a tale and one ca n't help but think he 'd appreciate this attempt to turn his life into art .
__label__5	Jirí Hubac 's script is a gem .
__label__5	His characters are engaging , intimate and the dialogue is realistic and greatly moving .
__label__4	The scope of the Silberstein family is large and we grow attached to their lives , full of strength , warmth and vitality . .
__label__5	Moore 's complex and important film is also , believe it or not , immensely entertaining , a David and Goliath story that 's still very much playing itself out .
__label__3	The additional storyline is interesting and entertaining , but it does n't have the same magical quality as the beginning of the story .
__label__5	I like the new footage and still love the old stuff .
__label__4	Though Mama takes a bit too long to find its rhythm and a third-act plot development is somewhat melodramatic , its ribald humor and touching nostalgia are sure to please anyone in search of a Jules and Jim for the new millennium .
__label__2	You might not buy the ideas .
__label__3	But you 'll definitely want the T-shirt .
__label__5	Provides an intriguing window into the imagination and hermetic analysis of Todd Solondz .
__label__4	Windtalkers is shapelessly gratifying , the kind of movie that invites you to pick apart its faults even as you have to admit that somehow it hit you where you live .
__label__4	Presents an astute appraisal of Middle American musical torpor and the desperate struggle to escape it .
__label__3	Just what makes us happy , anyway ?
__label__4	A thoughtful , moving piece that faces difficult issues with honesty and beauty .
__label__5	One of the greatest romantic comedies of the past decade .
__label__3	You would n't call The Good Girl a date movie ( an anti-date movie is more like it ) , but when it 's good , it 's good and horrid .
__label__4	Benefits from a strong performance from Zhao , but it 's Dong Jie 's face you remember at the end .
__label__4	This is a film brimming with detail and nuance and one that speaks volumes about the ability of the human spirit to find solace in events that could easily crush it forever .
__label__5	The director , Steven Shainberg , has succeeded by focusing intently on his characters , making them quirky individuals rather than figures of fun .
__label__3	It ultimately stands forth as an important chronicle of the abuses of one of Latin America 's most oppressive regimes .
__label__5	The movie has a soft , percolating magic , a deadpan suspense .
__label__4	A well-made and often lovely depiction of the mysteries of friendship .
__label__3	Using his audience as a figurative port-of-call , Dong pulls his even-handed ideological ship to their dock for unloading , before he continues his longer journey still ahead .
__label__3	... understands that a generation defines its music as much as the music defines a generation .
__label__4	The Transporter is as lively and as fun as it is unapologetically dumb
__label__4	As a witness to several Greek-American weddings -- but , happily , a victim of none -- I can testify to the comparative accuracy of Ms. Vardalos ' memories and insights .
__label__2	Has it ever been possible to say that Williams has truly inhabited a character ?
__label__3	It is now .
__label__4	By presenting an impossible romance in an impossible world , Pumpkin dares us to say why either is impossible -- which forces us to confront what 's possible and what we might do to make it so .
__label__5	An impressive debut for first-time writer-director Mark Romanek , especially considering his background is in music video .
__label__5	An incendiary , deeply thought-provoking look at one of the most peculiar ( and peculiarly venomous ) bigotries in our increasingly frightening theocracy
__label__5	All the performances are top notch and , once you get through the accents , All or Nothing becomes an emotional , though still positive , wrench of a sit .
__label__3	`` its successes are also tempered with elements which prove the direct antithesis of what it gets right . ''
__label__5	It 's solid and affecting and exactly as thought-provoking as it should be .
__label__4	This is such a dazzlingly self-assured directorial debut that it 's hard to know what to praise first .
__label__5	Parker holds true to Wilde 's own vision of a pure comedy with absolutely no meaning , and no desire to be anything but a polished , sophisticated entertainment that is in love with its own cleverness .
__label__4	Münch 's genuine insight makes the film 's occasional overindulgence forgivable .
__label__3	Thankfully , the film , which skirts that rapidly deteriorating line between fantasy and reality ... takes a tongue-in-cheek attitude even as it pushes the Croc Hunter agenda .
__label__3	Ultimately , the message of Trouble Every Day seems to be that all sexual desire disrupts life 's stasis .
__label__5	If you 're like me , a sucker for a good old fashion romance and someone who shamelessly loves to eat , then Mostly Martha offers all the perfect ingredients to more than satisfy your appetite .
__label__5	The film has just enough of everything -- re-enactments , archival footage , talking-head interviews -- and the music is simply sublime .
__label__4	There are a few stabs at absurdist comedy ... but mostly the humor is of the sweet , gentle and occasionally cloying kind that has become an Iranian specialty .
__label__5	A wonderful character-based comedy .
__label__3	It would be interesting to hear from the other side , but in Talk to Her , the women are down for the count .
__label__5	An endearingly offbeat romantic comedy with a great meet-cute gimmick .
__label__5	The unique tug-of-war with viewer expectations is undeniable , if not a pleasure in its own right .
__label__4	It uses an old-time formula , it 's not terribly original and it 's rather messy -- but you just have to love the big , dumb , happy movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding .
__label__5	It 's almost impossible not to be moved by the movie 's depiction of sacrifice and its stirring epilogue in post-Soviet Russia .
__label__4	Who knows what exactly Godard is on about in this film , but his words and images do n't have to add up to mesmerize you .
__label__4	The tone is balanced , reflective and reasonable .
__label__5	The principals in this cast are all fine , but Bishop and Stevenson are standouts .
__label__5	It could change America , not only because it is full of necessary discussion points , but because it is so accessible that it makes complex politics understandable to viewers looking for nothing but energetic entertainment .
__label__4	What 's most striking about this largely celebratory film ... is the sense of isolation that permeates these bastions of individuality in an Ikea world .
__label__5	... if you 're in a mind set for goofy comedy , the troopers will entertain with their gross outs , bawdy comedy and head games .
__label__5	Somewhat blurred , but Kinnear 's performance is razor sharp .
__label__3	As a director , Mr. Ratliff wisely rejects the temptation to make fun of his subjects .
__label__5	For anyone who remembers the '60s or is interested in one man 's response to stroke , Ram Dass : Fierce Grace is worth seeking out .
__label__4	Intriguing and beautiful film , but those of you who read the book are likely to be disappointed .
__label__4	The New Guy does have a heart .
__label__2	Now , if it only had a brain .
__label__5	A savvy exploration of paranoia and insecurity in America 's culture of fear .
__label__4	Legendary Irish writer Brendan Behan 's memoir , Borstal Boy , has been given a loving screen transferral .
__label__5	The film 's greatest asset is how much it 's not just another connect-the-dots , spy-on-the-run picture .
__label__5	This clever caper movie has twists worthy of David Mamet and is enormous fun for thinking audiences .
__label__5	It 's one of the saddest films I have ever seen that still manages to be uplifting but not overly sentimental .
__label__5	Morton is , as usual , brilliant .
__label__5	Even with all those rough edges safely sanded down , the American Insomnia is still pretty darned good .
__label__4	I do n't know precisely what to make of Steven Soderbergh 's Full Frontal , though that did n't stop me from enjoying much of it .
__label__4	The tug of war that ensues is as much a snapshot of modern China in microcosm as it is a crash course in movie mythology .
__label__2	Nearly surreal , dabbling in French , this is no simple movie , and you 'll be taking a risk if you choose to see it .
__label__5	I enjoyed the ride ( bumps and all ) , creamy depth , and ultimate theme .
__label__3	You could say that it 's slow at times , you could say that a few of the characters act in ways that real people would n't , but one thing you could n't say is that Alias Betty is predictable .
__label__3	Asia authors herself as Anna Battista , an Italian superstar and aspiring directress who just happens to be her own worst enemy .
__label__4	Roman Coppola may never become the filmmaker his Dad was , but heck -- few filmmakers will .
__label__4	But based on CQ , I 'll certainly be keeping an eye out for his next project .
__label__4	An amusing , breezily apolitical documentary about life on the campaign trail .
__label__3	High on melodrama .
__label__4	But it 's emotionally engrossing , too , thanks to strong , credible performances from the whole cast .
__label__4	Finally , a genre movie that delivers -- in a couple of genres , no less .
__label__4	It 's not so much enjoyable to watch as it is enlightening to listen to new sides of a previous reality , and to visit with some of the people who were able to make an impact in the theater world .
__label__3	Spielberg is the rare director who does not want to invite viewers to gawk at or applaud his special effects .
__label__4	He just wants them to be part of the action , the wallpaper of his chosen reality .
__label__3	Here , thankfully , they are .
__label__5	Hu and Liu offer natural , matter-of-fact performances that glint with sorrow , longing and love .
__label__5	This bold and lyrical first feature from Raja Amari expands the pat notion that middle-aged women just wanna have fun into a rousing treatise of sensual empowerment .
__label__3	Easier to respect than enthuse over , Andersson 's rigorous personal vision is not only distanced but distancing .
__label__3	Girls gone wild and gone civil again
__label__3	... Tunney is allowed to build an uncommonly human character , an almost real-live girl complete with trouble and hope .
__label__4	While this film is not in the least surprising , it is still ultimately very satisfying .
__label__5	Think of it as a sort of comfort food for the mind .
__label__4	Clever , brutal and strangely soulful movie .
__label__5	... always remains movingly genuine .
__label__4	An intelligent fiction about learning through cultural clash .
__label__5	Will grab your children by the imagination and amaze them and amuse them .
__label__5	A remarkable 179-minute meditation on the nature of revolution .
__label__5	Those who would follow Haneke on his creepy explorations ... are rewarded by brutal , committed performances from Huppert and Magimel .
__label__4	An involving true story of a Chinese actor who takes up drugs and winds up in an institution -- acted mostly by the actual people involved .
__label__5	Hands down the year 's most thought-provoking film .
__label__2	But it pays a price for its intricate intellectual gamesmanship .
__label__5	It 's a terrific American sports movie and Dennis Quaid is its athletic heart .
__label__4	This is such a high-energy movie where the drumming and the marching are so excellent , who cares if the story 's a little weak .
__label__4	Compelling revenge thriller , though somewhat weakened by a miscast leading lady .
__label__5	It 's amazingly perceptive in its subtle , supportive but unsentimental look at the Marks family .
__label__4	A whole lot foul , freaky and funny .
__label__4	Attal mixes comedy with a serious exploration of ego and jealousy within a seemingly serene marriage .
__label__4	The diversity of the artists represented , both in terms of style and ethnicity , prevents the proceedings from feeling repetitious , as does the appropriately brief 40-minute running time .
__label__4	The Pianist is a fine valedictory work for Polanski , made richer by his own experiences , making his other movies somehow richer in the bargain .
__label__4	Foster nails the role , giving a tight , focused performance illuminated by shards of feeling .
__label__4	Even if you ca n't pronounce `` gyro '' correctly , you 'll appreciate much of Vardalos ' humor , which transcends ethnic boundaries .
__label__3	Is office work really as alienating as ` Bartleby ' so effectively makes it ?
__label__4	Farrell ... thankfully manages to outshine the role and successfully plays the foil to Willis 's world-weary colonel .
__label__2	Audiences conditioned to getting weepy over saucer-eyed , downy-cheeked moppets and their empathetic caretakers will probably feel emotionally cheated by the film 's tart , sugar-free wit .
__label__3	Bennett 's dramatization of her personal descent into post-breakup perdition has a morbid appeal that 's tough to shake .
__label__5	An intriguing and entertaining introduction to Johnson .
__label__4	As expected , Sayles ' smart wordplay and clever plot contrivances are as sharp as ever , though they may be overshadowed by some strong performances .
__label__5	A model of what films like this should be like .
__label__5	As Weber and Weissman demonstrate with such insight and celebratory verve , the Cockettes were n't as much about gender , sexual preference or political agitprop as they were simply a triumph of the indomitable human will to rebel , connect and create .
__label__5	Yeah , these flicks are just that damn good .
__label__4	Is n't it great ?
__label__4	An unbelievably fun film just a leading man away from perfection .
__label__3	Over-the-top and a bit ostentatious , this is a movie that 's got oodles of style and substance .
__label__4	... a poignant and powerful narrative that reveals that reading writing and arithmetic are not the only subjects to learn in life .
__label__4	Nicely serves as an examination of a society in transition .
__label__5	A tender and touching drama , based on the true story of a troubled African-American 's quest to come to terms with his origins , reveals the yearning we all have in our hearts for acceptance within the family circle .
__label__4	As a randy film about sexy people in gorgeous places being pushed and pulled ( literally and figuratively ) by desire ... ( Sex and Lucía ) makes for an arousing good time .
__label__5	Celebrated at Sundance , this slight comedy of manners has winning performances and a glossy , glib charm that 's hard to beat .
__label__5	Renner 's performance as Dahmer is unforgettable , deeply absorbing .
__label__5	If no one singles out any of these performances as award-worthy , it 's only because we would expect nothing less from this bunch .
__label__5	Though of particular interest to students and enthusiast of international dance and world music , the film is designed to make viewers of all ages , cultural backgrounds and rhythmic ability want to get up and dance .
__label__5	Energetic and boldly provocative .
__label__4	Star Wars is back in a major way .
__label__5	It 's a movie -- and an album -- you wo n't want to miss .
__label__5	It 's rare to find a film that dazzles the eye , challenges the brain , AND satisfies our lust for fast-paced action , but Minority Report delivers all that and a whole lot more .
__label__5	While not all transitions to adulthood are so fraught , there 's much truth and no small amount of poetry in Girls Ca n't Swim .
__label__3	If there 's nothing fresh about Wannabes , which was written by Mr. DeMeo , who produced and directed the film with Charles A. Addessi , much of the time the movie feels authentic .
__label__4	Jacquot 's Tosca is a treat .
__label__4	By the end of No Such Thing the audience , like Beatrice , has a watchful affection for the monster .
__label__5	If you liked such movies as Notting Hill , Four Weddings And A Funeral , Bridget Jones ' Diary or High Fidelity , then you wo n't want to miss About A Boy .
__label__3	... the gentle melding of drama and comedy makes `` What Time Is It There ? ''
__label__5	something the true film buff will enjoy .
__label__5	Romanek keeps the film constantly taut ... reflecting the character 's instability with a metaphorical visual style and an unnerving , heartbeat-like score .
__label__5	I whole-heartedly recommend that everyone see this movie -- for its historical significance alone .
__label__2	Hey , who else needs a shower ?
__label__4	Longley has constructed a remarkably coherent , horrifically vivid snapshot of those turbulent days .
__label__4	Although it bangs a very cliched drum at times , this crowd-pleaser 's fresh dialogue , energetic music , and good-natured spunk are often infectious .
__label__5	Often gruelling and heartbreaking to witness , but Seldahl and Wollter 's sterling performances raise this far above the level of the usual maudlin disease movie .
__label__5	Go see it and enjoy .
__label__5	The stunning , dreamlike visuals will impress even those viewers who have little patience for Euro-film pretension .
__label__4	George Clooney proves he 's quite a talented director and Sam Rockwell shows us he 's a world-class actor with Confessions of a Dangerous Mind .
__label__5	There 's a vastness implied in Metropolis that is just breathtaking .
__label__5	Murderous Maids may well be the most comprehensive of these films and also strike closest to the truth .
__label__5	The people in Dogtown and Z-Boys are so funny , aggressive and alive , you have to watch them because you ca n't wait to see what they do next .
__label__4	As green-guts monster movies go , it 's a beaut .
__label__4	As Bundy , Michael Reilly Burke ( Octopus 2 : River of Fear ) has just the right amount of charisma and menace .
__label__4	A deceivingly simple film , one that grows in power in retrospect .
__label__5	Ana is a vivid , vibrant individual and the movie 's focus upon her makes it successful and accessible .
__label__4	A slick , skillful little horror film .
__label__5	A very witty take on change , risk and romance , and the film uses humour to make its points about acceptance and growth .
__label__4	( Anderson ) uses a hit-or-miss aesthetic that hits often enough to keep the film entertaining even if none of it makes a lick of sense .
__label__5	Bubba Ho-Tep is a wonderful film with a bravura lead performance by Bruce Campbell that does n't deserve to leave the building until everyone is aware of it .
__label__4	despite the long running time , the pace never feels slack -- there 's no scene that screams `` bathroom break ! ''
__label__4	Bullock does a good job here of working against her natural likability .
__label__4	A film of precious increments artfully camouflaged as everyday activities .
__label__5	Kinnear gives a tremendous performance .
__label__5	The best movie of its kind since ` Brazil . '
__label__3	Lucas , take notes .
__label__5	This is how you use special effects .
__label__2	One Hour Photo is an intriguing snapshot of one man and his delusions ; it 's just too bad it does n't have more flashes of insight .
__label__4	Kaufman creates an eerie sense of not only being there at the time of these events but the very night Matthew was killed .
__label__3	Chalk it up to my adoration for both De Niro and Murphy , but I had a pretty good time with this movie - despite its myriad flaws .
__label__4	Its scenes and sensibility are all more than familiar , but it exudes a kind of nostalgic spy-movie charm and , at the same time , is so fresh and free of the usual thriller nonsense that it all seems to be happening for the first time .
__label__5	It represents better-than-average movie-making that does n't demand a dumb , distracted audience .
__label__5	A charming yet poignant tale of the irrevocable ties that bind .
__label__5	An enchanting spectacular for Potter fans anxious to ride the Hogwarts Express toward a new year of magic and mischief .
__label__4	The talents of the actors helps `` Moonlight Mile '' rise above its heart-on-its-sleeve writing .
__label__4	It 's a humble effort , but spiced with wry humor and genuine pathos , especially between Morgan and Redgrave .
__label__4	This examination of aquatic life off the shores of the Baja California peninsula of Mexico offers an engrossing way to demonstrate the virtues of the IMAX format .
__label__4	Dark and disturbing , but also surprisingly funny .
__label__5	The movie has an avalanche of eye-popping visual effects .
__label__2	Starts off with a bang , but then fizzles like a wet stick of dynamite at the very end .
__label__4	It 's still worth a look .
__label__5	Most impressive , though , is the film 's open-ended finale that refuses to entirely close its characters ' emotional wounds .
__label__5	A hip ride into hyper-time , Clockstoppers is a lively and enjoyable adventure for all ages at any time .
__label__5	... a polished and relatively sincere piece of escapism .
__label__3	The story wraps back around on itself in the kind of elegant symmetry that 's rare in film today , but be warned : It 's a slow slog to get there .
__label__4	The whole cast looks to be having so much fun with the slapstick antics and silly street patois , tossing around obscure expressions like Bellini and Mullinski , that the compact 86 minutes breezes by .
__label__3	... has freaky scenes where the crew wonder if they 're ghosts imagining themselves as alive .
__label__4	It 's a sly wink to The Others without becoming a postmodern joke , made creepy by its `` men in a sardine can '' warped logic .
__label__3	Long after you leave Justine , you 'll be wondering what will happen to her and wishing her the best -- whatever that might mean .
__label__4	Still pretentious and filled with subtext , but entertaining enough at ` face value ' to recommend to anyone looking for something different .
__label__5	Call me a wimp , but I cried , not once , but three times in this animated sweet film .
__label__2	Notorious C.H.O. has oodles of vulgar highlights .
__label__5	An inspiring and heart-affecting film about the desperate attempts of Vietnamese refugees living in U.S. relocation camps to keep their hopes alive in 1975 .
__label__5	The level of maturity displayed by this 33-year-old first-time feature director is astonishing , considering her inexperience and her subject matter .
__label__5	A splendid entertainment , young in spirit but accomplished in all aspects with the fullness of spirit and sense of ease that comes only with experience .
__label__5	Disney 's live-action division has a history of releasing cinematic flotsam , but this is one occasion when they have unearthed a rare gem .
__label__3	If the message seems more facile than the earlier films , the images have such a terrible beauty you may not care .
__label__3	Whether Kiss is a future cult classic or destined to be completely forgotten is open to question , but the risk-takers in the crowd should check it out and form their own opinion .
__label__5	There are moments in this account of the life of artist Frida Kahlo that are among cinema 's finest this year .
__label__2	Unfortunately , they 're sandwiched in between the most impossibly dry account of Kahlo 's life imaginable .
__label__4	There are moments it can be heart-rending in an honest and unaffected ( and gentle ) way .
__label__5	Stay clear of reminding yourself that it 's a `` true story '' and you 're likely to have one helluva time at the movies .
__label__5	There are just enough twists in the tale to make it far more satisfying than almost any horror film in recent memory .
__label__4	Working from Elliott 's memoir , Rohmer fashions the sort of delicate , articulate character - and - relationship study he 's favored for decades .
__label__4	The story feels more like a serious read , filled with heavy doses of always enticing Sayles dialogue .
__label__4	When it really counts ... Bloody Sunday connects on a visceral level that transcends language .
__label__3	The crime matters less than the characters , although the filmmakers supply enough complications , close calls and double-crosses to satisfy us .
__label__5	Ranging from funny to shattering and featuring some of the year 's best acting , Personal Velocity gathers plenty of dramatic momentum .
__label__5	I complain all the time about seeing the same ideas repeated in films over and over again , but The Bourne Identity proves that a fresh take is always possible .
__label__3	Recalls quiet freak-outs like L'Avventura and Repulsion .
__label__5	Only an epic documentary could get it all down , and Spike Lee 's Jim Brown : All American at long last gives its subject a movie worthy of his talents .
__label__5	... as the story congeals you feel the pieces of the Star Wars saga falling into place in a way that makes your spine tingle with revelation and excitement .
__label__5	A great comedy filmmaker knows great comedy need n't always make us laugh .
__label__4	Tim Story 's not there yet - but ` Barbershop ' shows he 's on his way .
__label__5	The movie is one of the best examples of artful Large Format filmmaking you are likely to see anytime soon .
__label__3	Lends itself to the narcotizing bland ( sinister , though not nearly so sinister as the biennial Disney girl movie ) machinations of the biennial Disney boy movie .
__label__5	Well-written , nicely acted and beautifully shot and scored , the film works on several levels , openly questioning social mores while ensnaring the audience with its emotional pull .
__label__4	Jason X has cheesy effects and a hoary plot , but its macabre , self-deprecating sense of humor makes up for a lot .
__label__4	An impressive if flawed effort that indicates real talent .
__label__5	Two generations within one family test boundaries in this intelligent and restrained coming-of-age drama .
__label__4	it sounds sick and twisted , but the miracle of Shainberg 's film is that it truly is romance
__label__5	Disturbing and brilliant documentary .
__label__5	... mesmerizing , an eye-opening tour of modern Beijing culture in a journey of rebellion , retreat into oblivion and return .
__label__5	One of the best examples of how to treat a subject , you 're not fully aware is being examined , much like a photo of yourself you did n't know was being taken .
__label__4	Not too far below the gloss you can still feel director Denis Villeneuve 's beating heart and the fondness he has for his characters .
__label__4	As if to prove a female director can make a movie with no soft edges , Kathryn Bigelow offers no sugar-coating or interludes of lightness .
__label__1	Her film is unrelentingly claustrophobic and unpleasant .
__label__4	( Villeneuve ) seems to realize intuitively that even morality is reduced to an option by the ultimate mysteries of life and death .
__label__4	The result is mesmerizing -- filled with menace and squalor .
__label__4	Fisher has bared his soul and confronted his own shortcomings here in a way ... that feels very human and very true to life .
__label__3	It 's fun , but the code-talk will fly right over everyone 's head
__label__3	Bourne , Jason Bourne .
__label__3	He can scale a building like a super hero , he can out-stealth any agent , he 'll get the girl .
__label__4	He 's Super Spy !
__label__4	What makes the movie a comedy is the way it avoids the more serious emotions involved .
__label__4	This cuddly sequel to the 1999 hit is a little more visually polished , a little funnier , and a little more madcap .
__label__4	The pleasures of Super Troopers may be fleeting , but they 'll register strongly with anybody who still retains a soft spot for precollegiate humor .
__label__5	The film is exhilarating to watch because Sandler , liberated from the constraints of formula , reveals unexpected depths as an actor .
__label__4	A distant , even sterile , yet compulsively watchable look at the sordid life of Hogan 's Heroes star Bob Crane .
__label__5	The film delivers not just the full assault of Reno 's immense wit and insight , but a time travel back to what it felt like during those unforgettably uncertain days .
__label__4	What might have been a predictably heartwarming tale is suffused with complexity .
__label__4	Sound the trumpets : For the first time since Desperately Seeking Susan , Madonna does n't suck as an actress .
__label__4	Although very much like the first movie based on J.K. Rowling 's phenomenal fantasy best sellers , this second go-round possesses a quite pleasing , headlong thrust and a likably delinquent attitude .
__label__5	As the story moves inexorably through its seven day timeframe , the picture becomes increasingly mesmerizing .
__label__4	Maguire is a surprisingly effective Peter/Spider-Man .
__label__4	Not a cozy or ingratiating work , but it 's challenging , sometimes clever , and always interesting , and those are reasons enough to see it .
__label__4	The film runs on equal parts of innocence and wisdom -- wisdom that comes with experience .
__label__4	It has fun being grown up .
__label__4	Like old myths and wonder tales spun afresh .
__label__5	Rarely do films come along that are as intelligent , exuberant , and moving as Monsoon Wedding .
__label__4	One scarcely needs the subtitles to enjoy this colorful action farce .
__label__4	Quite funny for the type of movie it is ...
__label__3	It 's often infuriatingly glib and posturing , and yet it has been made with great evident care and manages to deliver up the man in a way to arouse further curiosity in even the most unknowing viewer .
__label__3	One of ( Herzog 's ) least inspired works .
__label__3	This boisterous comedy serves up a cruel reminder of the fate of hundreds of thousands of Chinese , one which can only qualify as a terrible tragedy .
__label__4	Elling really is about a couple of crazy guys , and it 's therapeutic to laugh along with them .
__label__5	An irresistible combination of a rousing good story set on a truly grand scale .
__label__5	There 's no denying the physically spectacular qualities of the film ... or the emotional integrity of the performances .
__label__5	Few films this year have been as resolute in their emotional nakedness .
__label__5	Exquisitely acted and masterfully if preciously interwoven ... ( the film ) addresses in a fascinating , intelligent manner the intermingling of race , politics and local commerce .
__label__3	Stevenson 's performance is at once clueless and fiercely committed , a volatile combination .
__label__5	This is a very fine movie -- go see it .
__label__4	As shaky as the plot is , Kaufman 's script is still memorable for some great one-liners .
__label__4	Despite its flaws , Secretary stays in your head and makes you question your own firmly held positions .
__label__5	One of those rare , exhilarating cinematic delights that gets even better in hindsight , as you mull over its every nuance in your mind .
__label__4	Not everything works , but the average is higher than in Mary and most other recent comedies .
__label__4	A byzantine melodrama that stimulates the higher brain functions as well as the libido .
__label__5	A sensitive and expertly acted crowd-pleaser that is n't above a little broad comedy and a few unabashedly sentimental tears .
__label__4	The film 's sharp , often mischievous sense of humor will catch some off guard ...
__label__5	Does what a fine documentary does best : It extends a warm invitation into an unfamiliar world , then illuminates it fully and allows the larger implications of the journey to sink in unobtrusively .
__label__5	Almost every scene in this film is a gem that could stand alone , a perfectly realized observation of mood , behavior and intent .
__label__4	A psychologically rich and suspenseful moral thriller with a stellar performance by Al Pacino .
__label__3	You wo n't believe much of it , but you will laugh at the audacity , at the who 's who casting and the sheer insanity of it all .
__label__4	This version 's no classic like its predecessor , but its pleasures are still plentiful .
__label__4	The Bourne Identity is what summer screen escapism used to be in the decades when it was geared more to grownups .
__label__5	Provide ( s ) nail-biting suspense and credible characters without relying on technology-of-the-moment technique or pretentious dialogue .
__label__4	If it tried to do anything more , it would fail and perhaps explode , but at this level of manic whimsy , it is just about right .
__label__3	Too sincere to exploit its subjects and too honest to manipulate its audience .
__label__2	The saturation bombing of Reggio 's images and Glass ' evocative music ... ultimately leaves viewers with the task of divining meaning .
__label__4	For all its serious sense of purpose ... ( it ) finds a way to lay bare the tragedies of its setting with a good deal of warmth and humor .
__label__1	A depressing confirmation of everything those of us who do n't object to the description `` unelected '' have suspected all along : George W. Bush is an incurious , uncharismatic , overgrown frat boy with a mean streak a mile wide .
__label__5	This road movie gives you emotional whiplash , and you 'll be glad you went along for the ride .
__label__3	Sure , it 's more of the same , but as the film proves , that 's not always a bad thing .
__label__5	A lighthearted , feel-good film that embraces the time-honored truth that the most powerful thing in life is love .
__label__4	A bowel-curdling , heart-stopping recipe for terror .
__label__4	Daughter from Danang is a film that should be seen by all , especially those who are n't aware of , or have forgotten about the unmentioned victims of war .
__label__4	Zhang Yimou delivers warm , genuine characters who lie not through dishonesty , but because they genuinely believe it 's the only way to bring happiness to their loved ones .
__label__4	... breathes surprising new life into the familiar by amalgamating genres and adding true human complexity to its not-so-stock characters . '
__label__4	... both hokey and super-cool , and definitely not in a hurry , so sit back , relax and have a few laughs while the little ones get a fuzzy treat . '
__label__4	A pleasant romantic comedy .
__label__3	It 's a Count for our times .
__label__5	Greengrass has delivered an undoubted stylistic tour-de-force , and has managed elements such as sound and cinematography with skill
__label__5	Smith 's point is simple and obvious -- people 's homes are extensions of themselves , and particularly eccentric people have particularly eccentric living spaces -- but his subjects are charmers .
__label__4	A romantic comedy , yes , but one with characters who think and talk about their goals , and are working on hard decisions .
__label__4	Vividly conveys both the pitfalls and the pleasures of over-the-top love .
__label__2	... a weak , manipulative , pencil-thin story that is miraculously able to entertain anyway .
__label__4	A pro-fat farce that overcomes much of its excessive moral baggage thanks to two appealing lead performances .
__label__4	For the first two-thirds of this sparklingly inventive and artful , always fast and furious tale , kids will go happily along for the ride .
__label__4	Majidi 's poetic love story is a ravishing consciousness-raiser , if a bit draggy at times .
__label__5	The smartest bonehead comedy of the summer .
__label__5	Effectively feeds our senses with the chilling sights and sounds from within the camp to create a completely numbing experience .
__label__5	I love the way that it took chances and really asks you to take these great leaps of faith and pays off .
__label__5	In his debut as a film director , Denzel Washington delivers a lean and engaging work .
__label__3	Only two words will tell you what you know when deciding to see it : Anthony .
__label__3	Hopkins .
__label__5	The movie 's quiet affirmation of neighborhood values gives it an honest , lived-in glow .
__label__4	A teasing drama whose relentless good-deed/bad-deed reversals are just interesting enough to make a sinner like me pray for an even more interesting , less symmetrical , less obviously cross-shaped creation .
__label__4	Hayek is stunning as Frida and ... a star-making project .
__label__4	It 's both a necessary political work and a fascinating documentary ...
__label__5	Hilarious , acidic Brit comedy .
__label__2	As a revenge thriller , the movie is serviceable , but it does n't really deliver the delicious guilty pleasure of the better film versions .
__label__3	An ironic speculation on democracy in a culture unaccustomed to it .
__label__3	Several degrees shy of the gross-out contests one expects from current teen fare .
__label__5	The inherent strength of the material as well as the integrity of the filmmakers gives this coming-of-age story restraint as well as warmth .
__label__4	Led by Griffin 's smartly nuanced performance and enthusiasm , the cast has a lot of fun with the material .
__label__4	Tuck Everlasting achieves a delicate balance of romantic innocence and philosophical depth .
__label__4	A gentle blend of present day testimonials , surviving footage of Burstein and his family performing , historical archives , and telling stills .
__label__2	A Generation X artifact , capturing a brief era of insanity in the sports arena that surely can not last .
__label__3	Possession is Elizabeth Barrett Browning meets Nancy Drew , and it 's directed by ... Neil LaBute .
__label__3	Hmm .
__label__4	An uneven but intriguing drama that is part homage and part remake of the Italian masterpiece .
__label__5	Windtalkers celebrates the human spirit and packs an emotional wallop .
__label__5	Having never been a huge fan of Dickens ' 800-page novel , it surprised me how much pleasure I had watching McGrath 's version .
__label__4	The best thing the film does is to show us not only what that mind looks like , but how the creative process itself operates .
__label__4	For all its failed connections , Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood is nurturing , in a gauzy , dithering way .
__label__2	This is pretty dicey material .
__label__4	But some unexpected zigs and zags help .
__label__4	The filmmakers skillfully evoke the sense of menace that nature holds for many urban dwellers .
__label__4	The laser-projected paintings provide a spell-casting beauty , while Russell and Dreyfus are a romantic pairing of hearts , preciously exposed as history corners them .
__label__3	You do n't have to be an especially tough grader to give a charitable B-minus to The Emperor 's Club .
__label__4	This romantic thriller is steeped in the atmosphere of wartime England , and ably captures the speech patterns , moral codes and ideals of the 1940s .
__label__5	Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood may not be exactly divine , but it 's definitely -- defiantly -- ya ya , what with all of those terrific songs and spirited performances .
__label__3	Viewed on its own terms , Treasure Planet is better-than-average family entertainment , but true fans of the Stevenson 's novel will likely prefer Disney 's more faithful 1950 live-action swashbuckling classic .
__label__4	A journey through memory , a celebration of living , and a sobering rumination on fatality , classism , and ignorance .
__label__5	Resourceful and ingenious entertainment .
__label__4	`` Antwone Fisher '' is an earnest , by-the-numbers effort by Washington .
__label__3	It wo n't rock any boats but is solid meat-and-potatoes filmmaking .
__label__5	A historical epic with the courage of its convictions about both scope and detail .
__label__4	We need ( Moore 's ) noisy , cocky energy , his passion and class consciousness ; we need his shticks , we need his stones .
__label__3	Although the editing might have been tighter , Hush !
__label__3	sympathetically captures the often futile lifestyle of young people in modern Japan .
__label__4	( Gai ) comes closer to any actress I can remember to personifying independence in its purest and , yes , most intimidating form .
__label__5	These are lives worth watching , paths worth following .
__label__4	It 's rather like a Lifetime special -- pleasant , sweet and forgettable .
__label__4	A moody horror/thriller elevated by deft staging and the director 's well-known narrative gamesmanship .
__label__5	As a singular character study , it 's perfect .
__label__5	It 's also the year 's sweetest movie .
__label__5	A graceful , contemplative film that gradually and artfully draws us into a world where the personal and the political get fatally intertwined .
__label__4	While not as aggressively impressive as its American counterpart , `` In the Bedroom , '' Moretti 's film makes its own , quieter observations
__label__4	The experience of watching blobby old-school CGI animation in this superlarge format is just surreal enough to be diverting .
__label__4	Time Changer may not be the most memorable cinema session but its profound self-evaluation message about our fragile existence and the absence of spiritual guidance should at least invade an abundance of mindsets
__label__3	`` The Emperor 's New Clothes '' begins with a simple plan ... Well , at least that 's the plan .
__label__3	Haynes has so fanatically fetishized every bizarre old-movie idiosyncrasy with such monastic devotion you 're not sure if you should applaud or look into having him committed .
__label__5	( Director Peter ) Jackson and his crew have so steeped themselves in the majesty of Tolkien 's writing that every frame produces new joys , whether you 're a fan of the books or not .
__label__3	While the glass slipper does n't quite fit , Pumpkin is definitely a unique modern fairytale .
__label__5	The drama is played out with such aching beauty and truth that it brings tears to your eyes .
__label__5	An exciting and involving rock music doc , a smart and satisfying look inside that tumultuous world .
__label__5	An offbeat , sometimes gross and surprisingly appealing animated film about the true meaning of the holidays .
__label__4	This version incarnates the prophetic book in a way even its exacting author might admire .
__label__4	Sometimes , nothing satisfies like old-fashioned swashbuckling .
__label__4	And in this regard , On Guard delivers .
__label__4	... ambition is in short supply in the cinema , and Egoyan tackles his themes and explores his characters ' crises with seriousness and compassion .
__label__4	An impossible romance , but we root for the patronized Iranian lad .
__label__5	Like Dickens with his passages , McGrath crafts quite moving scenes throughout his resolutely dramatic variation on the novel .
__label__4	There 's a disreputable air about the whole thing , and that 's what makes it irresistible .
__label__5	an exceedingly clever piece of cinema .
__label__5	another great ` what you do n't see ' is much more terrifying than what you do see thriller , coupled with some arresting effects , incandescent tones and stupendous performances
__label__4	A carefully structured scream of consciousness that is tortured and unsettling -- but unquestionably alive .
__label__4	A quietly reflective and melancholy New Zealand film about an eventful summer in a 13-year-old girl 's life .
__label__5	Cute , funny , heartwarming digitally animated feature film with plenty of slapstick humor for the kids , lots of in-jokes for the adults and heart enough for everyone .
__label__4	very solid , very watchable first feature for director Peter Sheridan
__label__5	a budget affair that exposes the generally sad existence of the Bedouins while providing a precious twinkle of insight into their lives .
__label__4	It suggests the wide-ranging effects of media manipulation , from the kind of reporting that is done by the supposedly liberal media ... to the intimate and ultimately tragic heartache of maverick individuals like Hatfield and Hicks .
__label__5	Workmanlike , maybe , but still a film with all the elements that made the other three great , scary times at the movies .
__label__4	A pleasant enough comedy that should have found a summer place .
__label__4	Branagh , in his most forceful non-Shakespeare screen performance , grounds even the softest moments in the angry revolt of his wit .
__label__5	Though the violence is far less sadistic than usual , the film is typical Miike : fast , furious and full of off-the-cuff imaginative flourishes .
__label__5	Compelling as it is exotic , Fast Runner has a plot that rivals Shakespeare for intrigue , treachery and murder .
__label__4	What it lacks in originality it makes up for in intelligence and B-grade stylishness .
__label__3	The warm presence of Zhao Benshan makes the preposterous lying hero into something more than he reasonably should be .
__label__5	This is as powerful a set of evidence as you 'll ever find of why art matters , and how it can resonate far beyond museum walls and through to the most painfully marginal lives .
__label__4	Director Rob Marshall went out gunning to make a great one .
__label__4	Skip work to see it at the first opportunity .
__label__5	Bow 's best moments are when he 's getting busy on the basketball court because that 's when he really scores .
__label__5	Offers enough playful fun to entertain the preschool set while embracing a wholesome attitude .
__label__2	In the end , Punch-Drunk Love is one of those films that I wanted to like much more than I actually did .
__label__3	Sometimes , that 's enough .
__label__4	An intimate , good-humored ethnic comedy like numerous others but cuts deeper than expected .
__label__5	Ice Cube holds the film together with an engaging and warm performance ...
__label__4	Both deeply weird and charmingly dear .
__label__4	As blunt as it is in depicting child abuse , El Bola is a movie steeped in an ambiguity that lends its conflicts a symbolic resonance .
__label__4	Despite a story predictable enough to make The Sound of Music play like a nail-biting thriller , its heart is so much in the right place it is difficult to get really peeved at it .
__label__4	An incredibly low-rent Danish film , it brings a group of people together in a sweet and charming way , if a little convenient
__label__4	It 's the cinematic equivalent of a good page-turner , and even if it 's nonsense , its claws dig surprisingly deep .
__label__2	Director Nalin Pan does n't do much to weigh any arguments one way or the other .
__label__4	He simply presents his point of view that Ayurveda works .
__label__3	No question .
__label__4	Claude Miller airs out a tight plot with an easy pace and a focus on character drama over crime-film complications .
__label__4	What Full Frontal lacks in thematic coherence it largely makes up for as loosey-goosey , experimental entertainment .
__label__2	Still , I 'm not quite sure what the point is ...
__label__5	Rich in detail , gorgeously shot and beautifully acted , Les Destinees is , in its quiet , epic way , daring , inventive and refreshingly unusual .
__label__4	( A ) Hollywood sheen bedevils the film from the very beginning ... ( but ) Lohman 's moist , deeply emotional eyes shine through this bogus veneer ...
__label__1	Do we really need a 77-minute film to tell us exactly why a romantic relationship between a 15-year-old boy and a 40-year-old woman does n't work ?
__label__5	Ford deserves to be remembered at Oscar time for crafting this wonderful portrait of a conflicted soldier .
__label__2	The film 's 45-minute running time stops shy of overkill , though viewers may be more exhausted than the athletes onscreen .
__label__1	Do n't expect any surprises in this checklist of teamwork cliches ...
__label__2	As adapted by Kevin Molony from Simon Leys ' novel `` The Death of Napoleon '' and directed by Alan Taylor , Napoleon 's journey is interesting but his Parisian rebirth is stillborn
__label__3	The movie addresses a hungry need for PG-rated , nonthreatening family movies , but it does n't go too much further .
__label__5	This warm and gentle romantic comedy has enough interesting characters to fill several movies , and its ample charms should win over the most hard-hearted cynics .
__label__4	A yarn that respects the Marvel version without becoming ensnared by it .
__label__5	This is a happy throwback to the time when cartoons were cinema 's most idiosyncratic form instead of one of its most predictable .
__label__5	Complex , affecting and uniquely Almodóvar , the film evokes strong emotions and pushes viewers to question their deepest notions of moral right and wrong .
__label__4	Good ol' urban legend stuff .
__label__2	Not so much a movie as a picture book for the big screen .
__label__4	This is n't my favorite in the series , still I enjoyed it enough to recommend .
__label__5	It 's one of the most honest films ever made about Hollywood .
__label__4	It is a film that will have people walking out halfway through , will encourage others to stand up and applaud , and will , undoubtedly , leave both camps engaged in a ferocious debate for years to come .
__label__5	On its own cinematic terms , it successfully showcases the passions of both the director and novelist Byatt .
__label__4	Pray 's film works well and will appeal even to those who are n't too familiar with turntablism .
__label__5	Good movie .
__label__5	Good actress .
__label__3	But if you expect light romantic comedy , good gosh , will you be shocked .
__label__5	It has the courage to wonder about big questions with sincerity and devotion .
__label__2	It risks seeming slow and pretentious , because it thinks the gamble is worth the promise .
__label__4	With youthful high spirits , Tautou remains captivating throughout Michele 's religious and romantic quests , and she is backed by a likable cast .
__label__4	It 's an example of sophisticated , challenging filmmaking that stands , despite its noticeable lack of emotional heft , in welcome contrast to the indulgent dead-end experimentation of the director 's previous Full Frontal .
__label__4	A very funny look at how another culture handles the process of courting and marriage .
__label__4	Anchored by a terrific performance by Abbass , Satin Rouge shows that the idea of women 's self-actualization knows few continental divides .
__label__5	Awkward but sincere and , ultimately , it wins you over .
__label__4	Smith profiles five extraordinary American homes , and because the owners seem fully aware of the uses and abuses of fame , it 's a pleasure to enjoy their eccentricities .
__label__3	Though the plot is predictable , the movie never feels formulaic , because the attention is on the nuances of the emotional development of the delicate characters .
__label__4	Sam Jones became a very lucky filmmaker the day Wilco got dropped from their record label , proving that one man 's ruin may be another 's fortune .
__label__5	Goyer 's screenplay and direction are thankfully understated , and he has drawn excellent performances from his cast .
__label__5	Binoche and Magimel are perfect in these roles .
__label__4	When your leading ladies are a couple of screen-eating dominatrixes like Goldie Hawn and Susan Sarandon at their raunchy best , even hokum goes down easily .
__label__4	While Undercover Brother is definitely one for the masses , it 's also full of sharp , smart satire .
__label__4	Gets under the skin of a man who has just lost his wife .
__label__3	No wonder they 're talking about `` Talk to Her . ''
__label__4	It 's astonishing .
__label__5	For its seriousness , high literary aspirations and stunning acting , the film can only be applauded .
__label__4	Look , this is a terrific flick replete with dazzling camera-work , dancing and music .
__label__5	It is inspirational in characterizing how people from such diverse cultures share the same human and spiritual needs .
__label__2	It 's fairly self-aware in its dumbness .
__label__5	A triumph , relentless and beautiful in its downbeat darkness .
__label__4	Tailored to entertain !
__label__5	A compelling , moving film that respects its audience and its source material .
__label__2	has a plot full of twists upon knots ... and a nonstop parade of mock-Tarantino scuzbag types that starts out clever but veers into overkill .
__label__5	A work of astonishing delicacy and force .
__label__5	The film benefits greatly from a less manic tone than its predecessor , as Cho appears to have settled comfortably into her skin .
__label__4	For the first time in several years , Mr. Allen has surpassed himself with the magic he 's spun with the Hollywood empress of Ms. Leoni 's Ellie .
__label__4	Is n't quite the equal of Woo 's best earlier work , but it 's easily his finest American film ... comes close to recapturing the brilliance of his Hong Kong films .
__label__4	The film hinges on its performances , and both leads are up to the task .
__label__4	An intelligent , earnest , intimate film that drops the ball only when it pauses for blunt exposition to make sure you 're getting its metaphysical point .
__label__4	A modest pleasure that accomplishes its goals with ease and confidence .
__label__5	A breezy , diverting , conventional , well-acted tale of two men locked in an ongoing game of cat-and-cat .
__label__4	What Jackson has accomplished here is amazing on a technical level .
__label__4	As teen movies go , `` Orange County '' is a refreshing change
__label__5	Makes S&M seem very romantic , and Maggie Gyllenhaal is a delight .
__label__4	A deliciously mordant , bitter black comedy .
__label__4	Although Life or Something Like It is very much in the mold of feel-good movies , the cast and director Stephen Herek 's polished direction pour delightfully piquant wine from aged bottles .
__label__5	It is risky , intelligent , romantic and rapturous from start to finish .
__label__3	The movie sticks much closer to Hornby 's drop-dead confessional tone than the film version of High Fidelity did .
__label__4	A pleasant ramble through the sort of idoosyncratic terrain that Errol Morris has often dealt with ... it does possess a loose , lackadaisical charm .
__label__4	This is a raw and disturbing tale that took five years to make , and the trio 's absorbing narrative is a heart-wrenching showcase indeed .
__label__5	A beautiful and haunting examination of the stories we tell ourselves to make sense of the mundane horrors of the world .
__label__5	Aside from being the funniest movie of the year , Simone , Andrew Niccol 's brilliant anti-Hollywood satire , has a wickedly eccentric enchantment to it .
__label__4	Watstein handily directs and edits around his screenplay 's sappier elements ... and sustains Off the Hook 's buildup with remarkable assuredness for a first-timer .
__label__1	Just another fish-out-of-water story that barely stays afloat .
__label__4	It 's the kind of pigeonhole-resisting romp that Hollywood too rarely provides .
__label__4	Reinforces the often forgotten fact of the world 's remarkably varying human population and mindset , and its capacity to heal using creative , natural and ancient antidotes .
__label__5	You can feel the heat that ignites this gripping tale , and the humor and humanity that root it in feeling .
__label__4	It 's hard not to be seduced by ( Witherspoon 's ) charisma , even in this run-of-the-mill vehicle , because this girl knows how to drive it to the max .
__label__4	A movie for 11-year-old boys with sports dreams of their own and the preteen girls who worship Lil ' Bow Wow .
__label__4	A refreshingly authentic coming-of-age tale .
__label__1	If you 're not into the Pokemon franchise , this fourth animated movie in four years wo n't convert you -- or even keep your eyes open .
__label__4	But fans should have fun meeting a brand-new Pokemon called Celebi .
__label__4	From the big giant titles of the opening credits to Elmer Bernstein 's perfectly melodic score , Haynes gets just about everything right .
__label__5	Whether seen on a 10-inch television screen or at your local multiplex , the edge-of-your-seat , educational antics of Steve Irwin are priceless entertainment .
__label__4	Has a shambling charm ... a cheerfully inconsequential diversion .
__label__3	Ferrara directs the entire film with the kind of detachment that makes any given frame look like a family 's custom-made Christmas card .
__label__5	The movie has lots of dancing and fabulous music .
__label__4	There are slow and repetitive parts , but it has just enough spice to keep it interesting .
__label__4	An incredibly clever and superbly paced caper filled with scams within scams within scams .
__label__4	There 's not much more to this adaptation of the Nick Hornby novel than charm -- effortless , pleasurable , featherweight charm .
__label__5	As a belated nod to some neglected all-stars , Standing in the Shadows of Motown is cultural history of the best kind : informative , revealing and richly entertaining .
__label__3	Even if the ride 's a little bumpy , with a final lap that 's all too suspiciously smooth , you gotta give director Roger Michell , best known for the superfluous Notting Hill , credit for trying .
__label__3	Not as distinctive or even as humorous as its needs to be to stand out , but it has clearly been made with affection and care .
__label__5	This is Carion 's debut feature but his script and direction hums with a confidence that many spend entire careers trying to reach .
__label__5	An intelligent , moving and invigorating film .
__label__5	... one of the most ingenious and entertaining thrillers I 've seen in quite a long time .
__label__4	A clever blend of fact and fiction .
__label__4	A vivid cinematic portrait .
__label__5	Hilarious , touching and wonderfully dyspeptic .
__label__5	Theirs is a simple and heart-warming story , full of mirth that should charm all but the most cynical .
__label__4	The film is an enjoyable family film -- pretty much aimed at any youngster who loves horses .
__label__5	A frisky and fresh romantic comedy exporing sexual politics and the challenges of friendships between women .
__label__5	It 's a good film -- not a classic , but odd , entertaining and authentic .
__label__4	Flavorful and romantic , you could call this How Martha Got Her Groove Back -- assuming , that is , she ever had one to begin with .
__label__4	Happily for Mr. Chin -- though unhappily for his subjects -- the invisible hand of the marketplace wrote a script that no human screenwriter could have hoped to match .
__label__5	Thurman and Lewis are hilarious throughout .
__label__3	the plot is so amusingly contrived and outlandish in its coincidences that no one could ever mistake it for anything resembling reality
__label__3	Hits one out of the park for the ` they do n't make 'em like that anymore ' department .
__label__4	It dares to be a little different , and that shading is what makes it worthwhile .
__label__4	( Fessenden ) is much more into ambiguity and creating mood than he is for on screen thrills
__label__5	The comic performances are all spot on , especially Lee Ross 's turn as Ken .
__label__4	a compelling journey ... and `` His Best Friend Remembers '' is up there with the finest of specials .
__label__2	At nearly three hours , the whole of Safe Conduct is less than the sum of its parts .
__label__4	The Hours makes you examine your own life in much the same way its characters do , and the experience is profound .
__label__5	The Hours is what movies are supposed to be ...
__label__5	A bold and subversive film that cuts across the grain of what is popular and powerful in this high-tech age , speaking its truths with spellbinding imagery and the entrancing music of Philip Glass .
__label__4	Pretty darn good , despite its smarty-pants aura .
__label__5	So young , so smart , such talent , such a wise *** .
__label__4	Woo 's fights have a distinct flair .
__label__3	His warriors collide in balletic explosion that implies an underlying order throughout the chaos .
__label__5	Barney has created a tour de force that is weird , wacky and wonderful .
__label__3	The ending does leave you unfulfilled , but these are performances to enjoy in a memorable ensemble piece .
__label__3	... an agreeable time-wasting device -- but George Pal 's low-tech 1960 version still rules the epochs .
__label__5	It 's a brave attempt to tap into the heartbeat of the world , a salute to the universal language of rhythm and a zippy sampling of sounds .
__label__3	Offers an unusual opportunity to observe the inequities in the death penalty , not just the inherent immorality but also the haphazard administration of it and public misperception of how the whole thing works .
__label__4	I do n't think I 've been as entranced and appalled by an Asian film since Shinya Tsukamoto 's Iron Man .
__label__4	It is so refreshing to see Robin Williams turn 180 degrees from the string of insultingly innocuous and sappy fiascoes he 's been making for the last several years .
__label__5	Director Benoit Jacquot , making his first opera-to-film translation with Tosca , conveys the heaving passion of Puccini 's famous love-jealousy - murder-suicide fandango with great cinematic innovation .
__label__3	Lilia 's transformation from strict mother to sensual siren is superficially preposterous , but Abbas infuses the role with an unimpeachable core of emotional truth .
__label__5	Frida 's artistic brilliance is undeniable -- it 's among the most breathtakingly designed films I 've ever seen .
__label__4	The perfect film for those who like sick comedies that can be snide .
__label__3	` Charly ' will divide its audience in two separate groups , those reaching for more tissues and those begging for mercy ...
__label__4	Nervy and sensitive , it taps into genuine artistic befuddlement , and at the same time presents a scathing indictment of what drives Hollywood .
__label__5	A marvellous journey from childhood idealism to adolescent self-absorption .
__label__4	The film is just a big , gorgeous , mind-blowing , breath-taking mess .
__label__5	Sharp , lively , funny and ultimately sobering film .
__label__4	Though the film 's scenario is certainly not earthshaking , this depiction of fluctuating female sexuality has two winning lead performances and charm to spare .
__label__4	A worthy tribute to a great humanitarian and her vibrant ` co-stars . '
__label__4	A recent favourite at Sundance , this white-trash satire will inspire the affection of even those unlucky people who never owned a cassette of Def Leppard 's Pyromania .
__label__3	The recording session is the only part of the film that is enlightening -- and how appreciative you are of this depends on your level of fandom .
__label__4	Occasionally funny and consistently odd , and it works reasonably well as a star vehicle for Zhao .
__label__3	Bright seems alternately amused and disgusted with this material , and he ca n't help throwing in a few of his own touches .
__label__5	The 3D images only enhance the film 's otherworldly quality , giving it a strange combo of you-are-there closeness with the disorienting unreality of the seemingly broken-down fourth wall of the movie screen .
__label__3	Andersson creates a world that 's at once surreal and disturbingly familiar ; absurd , yet tremendously sad .
__label__4	It 's predictable , but it jumps through the expected hoops with style and even some depth .
__label__5	Often hilarious , well-shot and , importantly , entertaining , Hell House is a fascinating document of an event that has to be seen to be believed .
__label__5	De Oliveira creates an emotionally rich , poetically plump and visually fulsome , but never showy , film whose bittersweet themes are reinforced and brilliantly personified by Michel Piccoli .
__label__5	... an inviting piece of film .
__label__4	The film 's real appeal wo n't be to Clooney fans or adventure buffs , but to moviegoers who enjoy thinking about compelling questions with no easy answers .
__label__5	The fact that The Rookie is a nearly impeccable cinematic experience -- and a wonderful all-ages triumph besides -- is a miracle akin to the story the film portrays .
__label__5	A deviant topical comedy which is funny from start to finish .
__label__4	A startling and fresh examination of how the bike still remains an ambiguous icon in Chinese society .
__label__5	A highly intriguing thriller , coupled with some ingenious plot devices and some lavishly built settings . .
__label__4	it 's a worthwhile tutorial in quantum physics and slash-dash
__label__5	As Hugh Grant says repeatedly throughout the movie , ` Lovely !
__label__5	Brilliant ! '
__label__5	Cho 's fearless in picking apart human foibles , not afraid to lay her life bare in front of an audience .
__label__5	Her delivery and timing are flawless .
__label__4	Works because , for the most part , it avoids the stupid cliches and formulaic potholes that befall its brethren .
__label__4	At its best , The Good Girl is a refreshingly adult take on adultery ...
__label__5	An amazing and incendiary movie that dives straight into the rough waters of contradiction .
__label__4	About nowhere kids who appropriated turfs as they found them and become self-made celebrity athletes -- a low-down version of the American dream .
__label__4	Occasionally , in the course of reviewing art-house obscurities and slam-bam action flicks , a jaded critic smacks into something truly new .
__label__4	A miniscule little bleep on the film radar , but one that many more people should check out
__label__5	A slick , well-oiled machine , exquisitely polished and upholstered .
__label__4	Do n't plan on the perfect ending , but Sweet Home Alabama hits the mark with critics who escaped from a small town life .
__label__3	It has a subtle way of getting under your skin and sticking with you long after it 's over .
__label__4	The movie stays afloat thanks to its hallucinatory production design .
__label__4	It helps that the central performers are experienced actors , and that they know their roles so well .
__label__4	A provocative movie about loss , anger , greed , jealousy , sickness and love .
__label__4	Worth the effort to watch .
__label__5	That rara avis : the intelligent romantic comedy with actual ideas on its mind .
__label__3	Boisterous and daft documentary .
__label__5	Hawke draws out the best from his large cast in beautifully articulated portrayals that are subtle and so expressive they can sustain the poetic flights in Burdette 's dialogue .
__label__4	A work of the utmost subtlety and perception , it marks the outstanding feature debut of writer-director Eric Byler , who understands the power of the implicit and the virtues of simplicity and economy .
__label__5	Full Frontal is the antidote for Soderbergh fans who think he 's gone too commercial since his two Oscar nominated films in 2000
__label__5	It turns out to be a cut above the norm , thanks to some clever writing and sprightly acting .
__label__4	You might not want to hang out with Samantha , but you 'll probably see a bit of yourself in her unfinished story .
__label__4	A work of intricate elegance , literary lyricism and profound common sense .
__label__5	It 's as close as we 'll ever come to looking through a photographer 's viewfinder as he works .
__label__5	Thoughtful , provocative and entertaining .
__label__4	Witty , touching and well paced .
__label__4	Lee Jeong-Hyang tells it so lovingly and films it so beautifully that I could n't help being captivated by it .
__label__4	You have to pay attention to follow all the stories , but they 're each interesting .
__label__4	The movie is well shot and very tragic , and one to ponder after the credits roll .
__label__3	Enjoy it for what it is ; you can hate yourself later .
__label__5	A map of the inner rhythms of love and jealousy and sacrifice drawn with a master 's steady stroke .
__label__5	A psychological thriller with a smart script and an obsessive-compulsive 's attention to detail .
__label__4	Grant gets to display his cadness to perfection , but also to show acting range that may surprise some who thought light-hearted comedy was his forte .
__label__5	At times funny and at other times candidly revealing , it 's an intriguing look at two performers who put themselves out there because they love what they do .
__label__4	Westfeldt and Juergensen exude a chemistry and comfort level that 's both saucy and endearing .
__label__4	Harsh , effective documentary on life in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories .
__label__5	The film is all a little Lit Crit 101 , but it 's extremely well played and often very funny .
__label__4	Earns its laughs from stock redneck ` types ' and from the many , many moments when we recognize even without the Elizabethan prose , the play behind the thing .
__label__4	A real story about real people living their lives concerned about the future of an elderly , mentally handicapped family member .
__label__4	It 's absolutely spooky how Lillard channels the Shagster right down to the original Casey Kasem-furnished voice .
__label__5	A dream cast of solid female talent who build a seamless ensemble .
__label__4	There is n't a weak or careless performance amongst them .
__label__4	Smart science fiction for grown-ups , with only a few false steps along the way .
__label__4	It 's a refreshing change from the self-interest and paranoia that shape most American representations of Castro .
__label__3	Often moving and explores the discomfort inherent in the contacts between the American ` hosts ' and their ` guests . '
__label__4	Though the controversial Korean filmmaker 's latest effort is not for all tastes , it offers gorgeous imagery , effective performances , and an increasingly unsettling sense of foreboding .
__label__5	Lathan and Diggs have considerable personal charm , and their screen rapport makes the old story seem new .
__label__5	The story may not be new , but Australian director John Polson , making his American feature debut , jazzes it up adroitly .
__label__4	It 's endearing to hear Madame D. refer to her husband as ` Jackie ' -- and he does make for excellent company , not least as a self-conscious performer .
__label__5	The film often achieves a mesmerizing poetry .
__label__4	More than makes up for its mawkish posing by offering rousing spates of genuine feeling .
__label__1	It 's neither as romantic nor as thrilling as it should be .
__label__4	But it offers plenty to ponder and chew on as its unusual relationship slowly unfolds .
__label__5	Occasionally funny , always very colorful and enjoyably overblown in the traditional Almodóvar style .
__label__4	Merchant effectively translates Naipaul 's lively mix of characters from the page to screen .
__label__4	Some movies are like a tasty hors-d'oeuvre ; this one is a feast .
__label__4	What could have become just another cautionary fable is allowed to play out as a clever , charming tale -- as pleasantly in its own way as its self-dramatizing characters .
__label__5	Davis has filled out his cast with appealing fresh faces .
__label__4	Achieves a sort of filmic epiphany that revels in the true potential of the medium .
__label__4	Once you get into its rhythm ... the movie becomes a heady experience .
__label__5	A fast-moving and remarkable film that appears destined to become a landmark in Japanese animation .
__label__5	A worthy entry into a very difficult genre .
__label__5	( Broomfield ) uncovers a story powerful enough to leave the screen sizzling with intrigue .
__label__5	Eight Crazy Nights is a showcase for Sandler 's many talents .
__label__4	A sweet-natured reconsideration of one of San Francisco 's most vital , if least widely recognized , creative fountainheads .
__label__5	This is one of the most visually stunning and thematically moving epics in recent memory , and in spite of numerous minor flaws , Scorsese 's best in more than a decade .
__label__5	Everywhere the camera looks there is something worth seeing .
__label__5	A richly imagined and admirably mature work from a gifted director who definitely has something on his mind .
__label__4	It 's a nicely detailed world of pawns , bishops and kings , of wagers in dingy backrooms or pristine forests .
__label__5	A charming , quirky and leisurely paced Scottish comedy -- except with an outrageous central gimmick that could have been a reject from Monty Python 's Meaning of Life .
__label__5	It never fails to engage us .
__label__4	Its direction , its script , and Weaver 's performance as a vaguely discontented woman of substance make for a mildly entertaining 77 minutes , if that 's what you 're in the mood for .
__label__5	A charming romantic comedy that is by far the lightest Dogme film and among the most enjoyable .
__label__4	This is the kind of movie that used to be right at home at the Saturday matinee , and it still is .
__label__4	The spark of special anime magic here is unmistakable and hard to resist .
__label__2	Like its two predecessors , 1983 's Koyaanisqatsi and 1988 's Powaqqatsi , the cinematic collage Naqoyqatsi could be the most navel-gazing film ever .
__label__3	Baran is n't the most transporting or gripping film from Iran -- or , indeed , by its director -- but it 's a worthy companion to the many fine , focused films emerging from that most surprising of nations .
__label__4	The visuals alone make Metropolis worth seeing .
__label__5	Dark , resonant , inventively detailed and packed with fleet turns of plot and a feast of visual amazement .
__label__4	A picture that extols the virtues of comradeship and community in a spunky , spirited fashion .
__label__4	A resonant tale of racism , revenge and retribution .
__label__4	Noyce 's film is contemplative and mournfully reflective .
__label__4	Here , Adrian Lyne comes as close to profundity as he is likely to get .
__label__4	Evokes a little of the fear that parents have for the possible futures of their children -- and the sometimes bad choices mothers and fathers make in the interests of doing them good .
__label__5	Rain is a small treasure , enveloping the viewer in a literal and spiritual torpor that is anything but cathartic .
__label__5	An elegant , exquisitely modulated psychological thriller .
__label__4	This concoction , so bizarre to the adult mind , is actually a charming triumph where its intended under-12 audience is concerned .
__label__4	Droll caper-comedy remake of `` Big Deal on Madonna Street '' that 's a sly , amusing , laugh-filled little gem in which the ultimate `` Bellini '' begins to look like a `` real Kaputschnik . ''
__label__5	It 's a beautifully accomplished lyrical meditation on a bunch of despondent and vulnerable characters living in the renown Chelsea Hotel ...
__label__3	Is it a total success ?
__label__2	No. .
__label__3	Is it something any true film addict will want to check out ?
__label__3	You bet .
__label__4	Zany , exuberantly irreverent animated space adventure .
__label__5	Dolgin and Franco fashion a fascinating portrait of a Vietnamese-born youngster who eagerly and easily assimilated as an all-American girl with a brand new name in southern Tennessee .
__label__3	The disarming cornball atmosphere has a way of infecting the entire crowd as the film rolls on .
__label__5	A refreshingly honest and ultimately touching tale of the sort of people usually ignored in contemporary American film .
__label__3	Search it out .
__label__3	Engrossing and affecting , if ultimately not quite satisfying .
__label__3	The story , like life , refuses to be simple , and the result is a compelling slice of awkward emotions .
__label__3	A sly game of cat and mouse that 's intense and thrilling at times , but occasionally stretches believability to its limits and relies on predictable plot contrivances .
__label__4	Funny and , at times , poignant , the film from director George Hickenlooper all takes place in Pasadena , `` a city where people still read . ''
__label__3	This horror-comedy does n't go for the usual obvious laughs at the expense of cheap-looking monsters -- unless you count Elvira 's hooters .
__label__4	The movie 's eventual success should be credited to Dennis Quaid , in fighting trim shape as an athlete as well as an actor
__label__4	Not a bad journey at all .
__label__4	Sits uneasily as a horror picture ... but finds surprising depth in its look at the binds of a small family .
__label__4	Windtalkers blows this way and that , but there 's no mistaking the filmmaker in the tall grass , true to himself .
__label__5	There is a refreshing absence of cynicism in Stuart Little 2 -- quite a rarity , even in the family film market .
__label__4	Eventually , it wins you over .
__label__3	Noyce films it more as a shocking history lesson than as drama .
__label__2	Like a south-of-the-border Melrose Place .
__label__3	Those with an interest in new or singular sorts of film experiences will find What Time Is It There ?
__label__5	well worth the time .
__label__5	A wildly funny prison caper .
__label__5	Huppert gives Erika a persona that is so intriguing that you find yourself staring hypnotically at her , trying to understand her and wondering if she 'll crack .
__label__5	Despite what anyone believes about the goal of its makers , the show ... represents a spectacular piece of theater , and there 's no denying the talent of the creative forces behind it .
__label__5	You 'll be left with the sensation of having just witnessed a great performance and , perhaps , give in to the urge to get on your feet and shake it .
__label__3	The actors are so terrific at conveying their young angst , we do indeed feel for them .
__label__4	The reason this picture works better than its predecessors is that Myers is no longer simply spoofing the mini-mod-madness of '60s spy movies .
__label__5	It is a kickass , dense sci-fi action thriller hybrid that delivers and then some .
__label__3	I have n't seen one in so long , no wonder I did n't recognize it at first .
__label__4	a compelling portrait of moral emptiness
__label__4	In Adobo , ethnicity is not just the spice , but at the heart of more universal concerns .
__label__4	It is ridiculous , of course ... but it is also refreshing , disarming , and just outright enjoyable despite its ridiculousness .
__label__5	... Blade II is more enjoyable than the original .
__label__4	A film that takes you inside the rhythms of its subject : You experience it as you watch .
__label__4	The movie exists for its soccer action and its fine acting .
__label__3	The movie is saved from unbearable lightness by the simplicity of the storytelling and the authenticity of the performances .
__label__4	The film starts out as competent but unremarkable ... and gradually grows into something of considerable power .
__label__2	Nothing Denis has made before , like Beau Travil and Nenette et Boni , could prepare us for this gory , perverted , sex-soaked riff on the cannibal genre .
__label__4	Reinforces the talents of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman , creator of Adaptation and Being John Malkovich .
__label__5	Greene delivers a typically solid performance in a role that is a bit of a departure from the noble characters he has played in the past , and he is matched by Schweig , who carries the film on his broad , handsome shoulders .
__label__5	Finds a way to tell a simple story , perhaps the simplest story of all , in a way that seems compelling and even original .
__label__5	A stunning piece of visual poetry that will , hopefully , be remembered as one of the most important stories to be told in Australia 's film history .
__label__4	This is art paying homage to art .
__label__3	... a joke at once flaky and resonant , lightweight and bizarrely original .
__label__5	Invincible is a wonderful movie .
__label__5	... a cute and sometimes side-splittingly funny blend of Legally Blonde and Drop Dead Gorgeous , starring Piper Perabo in what could be her breakthrough role .
__label__5	Dazzling and sugar-sweet , a blast of shallow magnificence that only sex , scandal , and a chorus line of dangerous damsels can deliver .
__label__3	Occasionally amateurishly made but a winsome cast and nice dialogue keeps it going .
__label__4	Japan 's premier stylist of sex and blood hits audiences with what may be his most demented film to date .
__label__4	Culkin , who 's in virtually every scene , shines as a young man who uses sarcastic lies like a shield .
__label__3	Cuts right through the B.S. giving a big middle-fingered `` shut up '' to those who talk up what is nothing more than two guys beating the hell outta one another .
__label__3	The AM-radio soundtrack and game cast -- Tierney and the inimitable Walken especially -- keep this unusual comedy from choking on its own conceit .
__label__3	... does such a fine job of engulfing you in its world and allying you with its characters ' choices , good and ill , that its shortcomings are remembered only as an afterthought .
__label__4	Marvelous , merry and , yes , melancholy film .
__label__4	From spiritual rebirth to bruising defeat , Vincent 's odyssey resonates in a profound way , comparable to the classic films of Jean Renoir .
__label__5	Novak manages to capture a cruelly hilarious vein of black comedy in the situation with his cast of non-actors and a gritty , no-budget approach .
__label__3	Insomnia is involving .
__label__2	Still , I thought it could have been more .
__label__3	There was time on that second round to see the subtleties of Ramsay 's portrait of grief .
__label__4	We can see the wheels turning , and we might resent it sometimes , but this is still a nice little picture , made by bright and friendly souls with a lot of good cheer .
__label__5	A comprehensive and provocative film -- one that pushes the boundaries of biography , and challenges its audience .
__label__5	The way Coppola professes his love for movies -- both colorful pop junk and the classics that unequivocally qualify as art -- is giddily entertaining .
__label__5	A worthwhile way to spend two hours .
__label__2	Francophiles will snicker knowingly and you 'll want to slap them .
__label__5	Sensitive , insightful and beautifully rendered film .
__label__5	One of the best of the year .
__label__5	A love for films shines through each frame and the era is recreated with obvious affection , scored to perfection with some tasty boogaloo beats .
__label__5	Throwing caution to the wind with an invitation to the hedonist in us all , Nair has constructed this motion picture in such a way that even the most cynical curmudgeon with find himself or herself smiling at one time or another .
__label__4	Makes an aborbing if arguable case for the man 's greatness .
__label__5	An endlessly fascinating , landmark movie that is as bold as anything the cinema has seen in years .
__label__1	... a haunting vision , with images that seem more like disturbing hallucinations .
__label__4	It is not a mass-market entertainment but an uncompromising attempt by one artist to think about another .
__label__3	Frailty is n't as gory or explicit .
__label__1	But in its child-centered , claustrophobic context , it can be just as frightening and disturbing -- even punishing .
__label__5	Mixes likeable personalities , inventive photography and cutting , and wall-to-wall toe-tapping music to paint a picture of a subculture that is at once exhilarating , silly , perverse , hopeful and always fun .
__label__4	The long-range appeal of `` Minority Report '' should transcend any awards it bags .
__label__5	This is one for the ages .
__label__5	( A ) superbly controlled , passionate adaptation of Graham Greene 's 1955 novel .
__label__5	Much monkeyfun for all .
__label__5	An enchanting film that presents an audacious tour of the past and takes within its warm embrace the bounties of cultural artifacts inside St. Petersburg 's Hermitage Museum .
__label__3	( Hawn 's character ) is so bluntly written , without a trace of sentimentality , and so blisteringly defined , that every other character seems overlooked and underwritten .
__label__3	The heightened symmetry of this new/old Cinema Paradiso makes the film a fuller experience , like an old friend haunted by the exigencies of time .
__label__5	The Powers team has fashioned a comedy with more laughs than many , no question .
__label__2	But this time there 's some mold on the gold .
__label__4	While surprisingly sincere , this average little story is adorned with some awesome action photography and surfing .
__label__4	It is far from the worst , thanks to the topical issues it raises , the performances of Stewart and Hardy , and that essential feature -- a decent full-on space battle .
__label__5	A film that is a portrait of grace in an imperfect world .
__label__4	A pleasurably jacked-up piece of action moviemaking .
__label__5	Nicolas Philibert observes life inside a one-room schoolhouse in northern France in his documentary To Be and to Have , easily one of the best films of the year .
__label__4	A perverse little truffle , dainty psychological terror on the outside with a creamy filling of familial jealousy and unrepentant domestic psychopathy .
__label__5	This ecologically minded , wildlife friendly film teaches good ethics while entertaining with its unconventionally wacky but loving family
__label__5	An enjoyably half-wit remake of the venerable Italian comedy Big Deal on Madonna Street .
__label__4	It takes this never-ending confusion and hatred , puts a human face on it , evokes shame among all who are party to it and even promotes understanding .
__label__4	Reign of Fire may be little more than another platter of reheated Aliens , but it 's still pretty tasty .
__label__4	There are times when A Rumor of Angels plays like an extended episode of Touched by an Angel -- a little too much dancing , a few too many weeping scenes -- but I liked its heart and its spirit .
__label__3	Two hours of melodramatic musical married to two hours of underdog sports intrigue , if the picture also shares the weaknesses of both genres , more 's the pity .
__label__5	This cheery , down-to-earth film is warm with the cozy feeling of relaxing around old friends .
__label__5	Thrilling , provocative and darkly funny , this timely sci-fi mystery works on so many different levels that it not only invites , it demands repeated viewings .
__label__4	A tale of horror and revenge that is nearly perfect in its relentless descent to the depths of one man 's tortured soul .
__label__5	An epic of grandeur and scale that 's been decades gone from the popcorn pushing sound stages of Hollywood .
__label__5	Genuinely touching because it 's realistic about all kinds of love .
__label__5	Lauren Ambrose comes alive under the attention from two strangers in town - with honest performances and realistic interaction between the characters , this is a coming-of-age story with a twist .
__label__2	There has been much puzzlement among critics about what the election symbolizes .
__label__3	I believe the message is in the messenger : The agent is a woman .
__label__4	An enjoyable film for the family , amusing and cute for both adults and kids .
__label__3	`` The Mothman Prophecies '' is a difficult film to shake from your conscience when night falls .
__label__5	The second chapter of the Harry Potter series is even more magical than the first and simply the best family film of the year .
__label__4	More honest about Alzheimer 's disease , I think , than Iris .
__label__5	The acting alone is worth the price of admission .
__label__5	An excellent romp that boasts both a heart and a mind .
__label__4	Interacting eyeball-to-eyeball and toe-to-toe , Hopkins and Norton are a winning combination -- but Fiennes steals ` Red Dragon ' right from under their noses .
__label__5	This is a terrific character study , a probe into the life of a complex man .
__label__5	Impresses you with its open-endedness and surprises .
__label__4	This is n't a narrative film -- I do n't know if it 's possible to make a narrative film about September 11th , though I 'm sure some will try -- but it 's as close as anyone has dared to come .
__label__5	My oh my , is this an invigorating , electric movie .
__label__2	The two leads chomp considerably more scenery with their acting than fire-breathing monsters barbecue with their breath ...
__label__5	Cedar takes a very open-minded approach to this sensitive material , showing impressive control , both visually and in the writing .
__label__5	Biggie and Tupac is so single-mindedly daring , it puts far more polished documentaries to shame .
__label__4	So many documentaries like this presuppose religious bigotry or zealous nuttiness of its antagonists , but Family Fundamentals displays a rare gift for unflinching impartiality .
__label__5	The cast is uniformly excellent and relaxed .
__label__4	After making several adaptations of other writers ' work , Armenian-Canadian director Atom Egoyan broached an original treatment of a deeply personal subject .
__label__4	The film is painfully authentic , and the performances of the young players are utterly convincing .
__label__5	If it seems like a minor miracle that its septuagenarian star is young enough to be the nonagenarian filmmaker 's son , more incredible still are the clear-eyed boldness and quiet irony with which actor and director take on life 's urgent questions .
__label__5	A candid and often fascinating documentary about a Pentecostal church in Dallas that assembles an elaborate haunted house each year to scare teenagers into attending services .
__label__4	Fans of the animated wildlife adventure show will be in warthog heaven ; others need not necessarily apply .
__label__5	Without resorting to hyperbole , I can state that Kissing Jessica Stein may be the best same-sex romance I have seen .
__label__4	Nolan bravely treads where few American films dare to delve -- into the world of ambivalence and ambiguity ...
__label__4	Unlike the nauseating fictions peddled by such ` Have-yourself-a-happy-little-Holocaust ' movies as Life Is Beautiful and Jakob the Liar , The Grey Zone is honest enough to deny the possibility of hope in Auschwitz .
__label__4	A potent allegorical love story .
__label__3	Even those who would like to dismiss the film outright should find much to mull and debate .
__label__5	This is cool , slick stuff , ready to quench the thirst of an audience that misses the summer blockbusters .
__label__5	The movie is full of fine performances , led by Josef Bierbichler as Brecht and Monica Bleibtreu as Helene Weigel , his wife .
__label__4	A captivating cross-cultural comedy of manners .
__label__5	Andy Garcia enjoys one of his richest roles in years and Mick Jagger gives his best movie performance since , well , Performance .
__label__3	The movie is n't always easy to look at .
__label__5	But if it is indeed a duty of art to reflect life , than Leigh has created a masterful piece of artistry right here .
__label__5	It 's ( Ricci 's ) best work yet , this girl-woman who sincerely believes she can thwart the world 's misery with blind good will .
__label__4	Highlights are the terrific performances by Christopher Plummer , as the prime villain , and Nathan Lane as Vincent Crummles , the eccentric theater company manager .
__label__5	( Howard ) so good as Leon Barlow ... that he hardly seems to be acting .
__label__4	Superior genre storytelling , which gets under our skin simply by crossing the nuclear line .
__label__3	By taking Entertainment Tonight subject matter and giving it humor and poignancy , Auto Focus becomes both gut-bustingly funny and crushingly depressing .
__label__4	It 's a bittersweet and lyrical mix of elements .
__label__4	Subversive , meditative , clinical and poetic , The Piano Teacher is a daring work of genius .
__label__3	The weakest of the four Harry Potter books has been transformed into the stronger of the two films by the thinnest of margins .
__label__2	Its gross-out gags and colorful set pieces ... are of course stultifyingly contrived and too stylized by half .
__label__2	Still , it gets the job done -- a sleepy afternoon rental .
__label__5	It further declares its director , Zhang Yang of Shower , as a boldly experimental , contemporary stylist with a bright future .
__label__4	Smith 's approach is never to tease , except gently and in that way that makes us consider our own eccentricities and how they are expressed through our homes .
__label__5	Full of profound , real-life moments that anyone can relate to , it deserves a wide audience .
__label__5	A movie that will touch the hearts of both children and adults , as well as bring audiences to the edge of their seats .
__label__5	Leave it to Rohmer , now 82 , to find a way to bend current technique to the service of a vision of the past that is faithful to both architectural glories and commanding open spaces of the city as it was more than two centuries ago .
__label__2	Fine acting but there is no sense of connecting the dots , just dots .
__label__3	An extraordinary Swedish film about the soul adventure of marriage -- the kind of intimate and character-driven film that Bille August does best .
__label__5	A blessed gift to film geeks and historians .
__label__3	If the ' 70 's were your idea of a good time at the movies , this will make you very happy .
__label__1	It took 19 predecessors to get THIS ?
__label__5	Thoughtful , even stinging at times , and lots of fun .
__label__4	One of the most haunting , viciously honest coming-of-age films in recent memory .
__label__5	The WWII drama is well plotted , visually striking and filled with enjoyably complex characters who are never what they first appear .
__label__5	It 's a pleasure to see Seinfeld griping about the biz with buddies Chris Rock , Garry Shandling and Colin Quinn .
__label__5	If you love Motown music , you 'll love this documentary .
__label__2	This time out , ( Sade ) is an unsettlingly familiar figure -- in turns loyal and deceitful , responsible and reckless , idealistically selfless and coldly self-interested .
__label__3	Human Resources was a good , straightforward tale , but Time Out is better .
__label__3	It 's haunting .
__label__4	It 's like a poem .
__label__4	To the film 's credit , the acting is fresh and unselfconscious , and Munch is a marvel of reality versus sappy sentiment .
__label__5	Chicago is , in many ways , an admirable achievement .
__label__4	Shainberg weaves a carefully balanced scenario that is controlled by neither character , is weirdly sympathetic to both and manages to be tender and darkly comic .
__label__4	Even when foreign directors ... borrow stuff from Hollywood , they invariably shake up the formula and make it more interesting .
__label__4	A cockamamie tone poem pitched precipitously between swoony lyricism and violent catastrophe ... the most aggressively nerve-wracking and screamingly neurotic romantic comedy in cinema history .
__label__4	Sturdy , entertaining period drama ... both Caine and Fraser have their moments .
__label__3	Whether ( Binoche and Magimel ) are being charming or angst-ridden , they easily fill their scenes and , fine judges both , never overcook the hysteria .
__label__4	A spunky , original take on a theme that will resonate with singles of many ages .
__label__5	It 's a glorious groove that leaves you wanting more .
__label__4	Majidi gets uniformly engaging performances from his largely amateur cast .
__label__3	... a well-observed and disturbing little movie
__label__4	Fans of Nijinsky will savor every minute of Cox 's work .
__label__5	Everything you loved about it in 1982 is still there , for everybody who wants to be a kid again , or show it to their own kids .
__label__4	Jagger the actor is someone you want to see again .
__label__4	Escapism in its purest form .
__label__4	There is a kind of attentive concern that Hoffman brings to his characters , as if he has been giving them private lessons , and now it is time for their first public recital .
__label__5	A comic gem with some serious sparkles .
__label__4	U.S. audiences may find ( Attal and Gainsbourg 's ) unfamiliar personas give the film an intimate and quaint reality that is a little closer to human nature than what Hollywood typically concocts .
__label__4	Once again , director Jackson strikes a rewarding balance between emotion on the human scale and action/effects on the spectacular scale .
__label__5	A loving little film of considerable appeal .
__label__4	Although it 's a bit smug and repetitive , this documentary engages your brain in a way few current films do .
__label__3	Flawed but worthy look at life in U.S. relocation camps .
__label__2	Demands too much of most viewers .
__label__2	The story drifts so inexorably into cliches about tortured ( and torturing ) artists and consuming but impossible love that you ca n't help but become more disappointed as each overwrought new sequence plods on .
__label__5	It should be mentioned that the set design and interiors of the haunted vessel are more than effectively creepy and moodily lit .
__label__3	So I just did .
__label__1	Shamelessly sappy and , worse , runs away from its own provocative theme .
__label__1	The Ring just left me cold and wet like I was out in the Seattle drizzle without rainwear .
__label__1	The film seems a dead weight .
__label__2	The lack of pace kills it , although , in a movie about cancer , this might be apt .
__label__1	For anyone who grew up on Disney 's 1950 Treasure Island , or remembers the 1934 Victor Fleming classic , this one feels like an impostor .
__label__2	A clutchy , indulgent and pretentious travelogue and diatribe against ... well , just stuff .
__label__4	Watching Scarlet Diva , one is poised for titillation , raw insight or both .
__label__2	Instead , we just get messy anger , a movie as personal therapy .
__label__1	Meandering , sub-aquatic mess : It 's so bad it 's good , but only if you slide in on a freebie .
__label__1	The ending is a cop-out .
__label__3	What happens to John Q ?
__label__2	I do n't have an I Am Sam clue .
__label__2	Has the feel of an unedited personal journal .
__label__2	Remember when Bond had more glamour than clamor ?
__label__2	No more .
__label__3	Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of cheese , indeed .
__label__3	This charmless nonsense ensues amid clanging film references that make Jay and Silent Bob 's Excellent Adventure seem understated .
__label__3	It does n't quite deserve the gong , but there are more fascinating acts than `` Confessions of a Dangerous Mind . ''
__label__2	The subject of swinging still seems ripe for a documentary -- just not this one .
__label__2	... Hudlin is stuck trying to light a fire with soggy leaves .
__label__2	Unlike his directorial efforts , La Femme Nikita and The Professional , The Transporter lacks Besson 's perspective as a storyteller .
__label__1	The overall effect is so completely inane that one would have to be mighty bored to even think of staying with this for more than , say , ten ... make that three minutes .
__label__1	Most of the supporting characters in Eastwood films are weak , as are most of the subplots .
__label__1	This one 's weaker than most .
__label__2	Audiences will find no mention of political prisoners or persecutions that might paint the Castro regime in less than saintly tones .
__label__2	The film takes too long getting to the good stuff , then takes too long figuring out what to do next .
__label__2	You can practically smell the patchouli oil .
__label__3	To say Analyze That is De Niro 's best film since Meet the Parents sums up the sad state of his recent career .
__label__1	The actors do n't inhabit their roles -- they 're trapped by them , forced to change behavior in bizarre unjustified fashion and spout dialog that consists mostly of platitudes .
__label__2	An often-deadly boring , strange reading of a classic whose witty dialogue is treated with a baffling casual approach
__label__2	This film was made to get laughs from the slowest person in the audience -- just pure slapstick with lots of inane , inoffensive screaming and exaggerated facial expressions .
__label__2	Consists of a plot and jokes done too often by people far more talented than Ali G
__label__2	Moderately involving despite bargain-basement photography and hackneyed romance .
__label__3	There is no insight into the anguish of Heidi 's life -- only a depiction of pain , today 's version of Greek tragedy , the talk-show guest decrying her fate .
__label__1	The editing is chaotic , the photography grainy and badly focused , the writing unintentionally hilarious , the direction unfocused , the performances as wooden .
__label__1	When ( De Palma 's ) bad , he 's really bad , and Femme Fatale ranks with the worst he has done .
__label__3	Tadpole is emblematic of the witless ageism afflicting films : Young is cool , and too young is too cool .
__label__2	I doubt anyone will remember the picture by the time Christmas really rolls around , but maybe it 'll be on video by then .
__label__2	Uncertain in tone ... a garbled exercise in sexual politics , a junior varsity Short Cuts by way of Very Bad Things .
__label__3	All 's well that ends well , and rest assured , the consciousness-raising lessons are cloaked in gross-out gags .
__label__1	The only thing worse than your substandard , run-of-the-mill Hollywood picture is an angst-ridden attempt to be profound .
__label__2	If you think that Jennifer Lopez has shown poor judgment in planning to marry Ben Affleck , wait till you see Maid in Manhattan .
__label__2	Stars Matthew Perry and Elizabeth Hurley illicit more than a chuckle , and more jokes land than crash , but ultimately Serving Sara does n't distinguish itself from the herd .
__label__2	It 's best to avoid imprisonment with the dull , nerdy folks that inhabit Cherish .
__label__2	Culkin exudes none of the charm or charisma that might keep a more general audience even vaguely interested in his bratty character .
__label__3	In the end , Ted Bundy 's only justification is the director 's common but unexplored fascination with the frustrated maniac ; there 's no larger point , and little social context .
__label__2	... ( like ) channel surfing between the Discovery Channel and a late-night made-for-cable action movie .
__label__2	A movie that , rather than skip along the Seine , more or less slogs its way through soggy Paris , tongue uncomfortably in cheek .
__label__2	Shot perhaps ` artistically ' with handheld cameras and apparently no movie lights by Joaquin Baca-Asay , the low-budget production swings annoyingly between vertigo and opacity .
__label__1	Imagine a really bad community theater production of West Side Story without the songs .
__label__1	Soul is what 's lacking in every character in this movie and , subsequently , the movie itself .
__label__1	A one-trick pony whose few T&A bits still ca n't save itself from being unoriginal , unfunny and unrecommendable .
__label__3	The worst kind of independent ; the one where actors play dress down hicks and ponderously mope around trying to strike lightning as captured by their 1970s predecessors
__label__3	It may be a prize winner , but Teacher is a bomb .
__label__4	The production values are up there .
__label__5	The use of CGI and digital ink-and-paint make the thing look really slick .
__label__4	The voices are fine as well .
__label__2	The problem , it is with most of these things , is the script .
__label__3	It 's got its heart in the right place , but it also wilts after awhile .
__label__1	Proves that a movie about goodness is not the same thing as a good movie .
__label__2	Well , it does go on forever .
__label__1	This overproduced and generally disappointing effort is n't likely to rouse the Rush Hour crowd .
__label__2	Topkapi this is not .
__label__1	If Shayamalan wanted to tell a story about a man who loses his faith , why did n't he just do it , instead of using bad sci-fi as window dressing ?
__label__2	Ethan Hawke has always fancied himself the bastard child of the Beatnik generation and it 's all over his Chelsea Walls .
__label__3	Equal parts bodice-ripper and plodding costume drama .
__label__2	I 'm not suggesting that you actually see it , unless you 're the kind of person who has seen every Wim Wenders film of the '70s .
__label__1	While the film misfires at every level , the biggest downside is the paucity of laughter in what 's supposed to be a comedy .
__label__5	If you liked the 1982 film then , you 'll still like it now .
__label__2	A 93-minute condensation of a 26-episode TV series , with all of the pitfalls of such you 'd expect .
__label__2	Guillen rarely gets beneath the surface of things .
__label__2	She lists ingredients , but never mixes and stirs .
__label__1	Audiences can be expected to suspend their disbelief only so far -- and that does not include the 5 o'clock shadow on the tall wooden kid as he skips off to school .
__label__1	To imagine the life of Harry Potter as a martial arts adventure told by a lobotomized Woody Allen is to have some idea of the fate that lies in store for moviegoers lured to the mediocrity that is Kung Pow : Enter the Fist .
__label__2	It delivers some chills and sustained unease , but flounders in its quest for Deeper Meaning .
__label__1	Credibility levels are low and character development a non-starter .
__label__2	I would have preferred a transfer down the hall to Mr. Holland 's class for the music , or to Robin Williams 's lecture so I could listen to a teacher with humor , passion , and verve .
__label__3	For the most part , the ingredients are there .
__label__2	But an unwillingness to explore beyond the surfaces of her characters prevents Nettelbeck 's film from coming together .
__label__5	An earnest , heartrending look at the divide between religious fundamentalists and their gay relatives .
__label__2	It 's also heavy-handed and devotes too much time to bigoted views .
__label__2	A mawkish , implausible platonic romance that makes Chaplin 's City Lights seem dispassionate by comparison .
__label__3	Yes , one enjoys seeing Joan grow from awkward young woman to strong , determined monarch , but her love for the philandering Philip only diminishes her stature .
__label__2	It 's a film that hinges on its casting , and Glover really does n't fit the part .
__label__1	This is a throwaway , junk-food movie whose rap soundtrack was better tended to than the film itself .
__label__1	... with the candy-like taste of it fading faster than 25-cent bubble gum , I realized this is a throwaway movie that wo n't stand the test of time .
__label__3	It 's a trifle .
__label__3	Literally nothing in The Pool is new , but if you grew up on the stalker flicks of the 1980 's this one should appease you for 90 minutes .
__label__2	Arguably the year 's silliest and most incoherent movie .
__label__3	Anyway , for one reason or another , Crush turns into a dire drama partway through .
__label__1	After that , it just gets stupid and maudlin .
__label__4	Too bad , but thanks to some lovely comedic moments and several fine performances , it 's not a total loss .
__label__3	Chao was Chen Kaige 's assistant for years in China .
__label__1	He has not learnt that storytelling is what the movies are about .
__label__2	A mixed bag of a comedy that ca n't really be described as out of this world .
__label__1	The film is a travesty of the genre and even as spoof takes itself too seriously .
__label__2	Marries the amateurishness of The Blair Witch Project with the illogic of Series 7 : The Contenders to create a completely crass and forgettable movie .
__label__1	The Piano Teacher is the sort of movie that discourages American audiences from ever wanting to see another foreign film .
__label__3	If it 's another regurgitated action movie you 're after , there 's no better film than Half Past Dead .
__label__1	So what is the point ?
__label__4	Lovingly choreographed bloodshed taking place in a pristine movie neverland , basically .
__label__2	This is junk food cinema at its greasiest .
__label__5	When it 's all wet , Blue Crush is highly enjoyable .
__label__2	When it 's on dry land , though , this surfer-girl melodrama starts gasping like a beached grouper .
__label__4	Most new movies have a bright sheen .
__label__1	Some , like Ballistic , arrive stillborn ... looking like the beaten , well-worn video box cover of seven years into the future .
__label__2	The story is naturally poignant , but first-time screenwriter Paul Pender overloads it with sugary bits of business .
__label__3	You see Robert De Niro singing - and dancing to - West Side Story show tunes .
__label__4	Choose your reaction : A. ) That sure is funny !
__label__1	B. ) That sure is pathetic !
__label__1	A sermonizing and lifeless paean to teenage dullards .
__label__3	This dramatically shaky contest of wills only reiterates the old Hollywood saw : Evil is interesting and good is boring .
__label__2	Before long , the film starts playing like General Hospital crossed with a Saturday Night Live spoof of Dog Day Afternoon .
__label__2	The charms of willful eccentricity , at least as evidenced by this latest cinematic essay , are beginning to wear a bit thin .
__label__2	Instead of accurately accounting a terrible true story , the film 's more determined to become the next Texas Chainsaw Massacre .
__label__3	But what about the countless other people who 'd merely like to watch a solid tale about a universally interesting soul ?
__label__2	A silly , self-indulgent film about a silly , self-indulgent filmmaker .
__label__2	Scarlet Diva has a voyeuristic tug , but all in all it 's a lot less sensational than it wants to be .
__label__2	The character is too forced and overwritten to be funny or believable much of the time , and Clayburgh does n't always improve the over-the-top mix .
__label__2	Flashy , pretentious and as impenetrable as Morvern 's thick , working-class Scottish accent .
__label__1	Lame , haphazard teen comedy .
__label__2	It 's the kind of movie that ends up festooning U.S. art house screens for no reason other than the fact that it 's in French ( well , mostly ) with English subtitles and is magically ` significant ' because of that .
__label__1	This miserable excuse of a movie runs on empty , believing Flatbush machismo will get it through .
__label__2	Expect to be reminded of other , better films , especially Seven , which director William Malone slavishly copies .
__label__2	Nair stuffs the film with dancing , henna , ornamentation , and group song , but her narrative clichés and telegraphed episodes smell of old soap opera .
__label__2	It 's getting harder and harder to ignore the fact that Hollywood is n't laughing with us , folks .
__label__2	It 's laughing at us .
__label__2	Might have been better off as a documentary , with less of Mr. Eyre 's uninspired dramatics and more of his sense of observation and outrage .
__label__3	Every good actor needs to do his or her own Hamlet .
__label__4	For Benigni it was n't Shakespeare whom he wanted to define his career with but Pinocchio .
__label__2	It might as well have been Problem Child IV .
__label__2	Arnold 's jump from little screen to big will leave frowns on more than a few faces .
__label__3	Both awful and appealing .
__label__2	The lack of opposing viewpoints soon grows tiresome -- the film feels more like a series of toasts at a testimonial dinner than a documentary .
__label__2	Nothing plot-wise is worth e-mailing home about .
__label__2	We are left with a superficial snapshot that , however engaging , is insufficiently enlightening and inviting .
__label__2	Helmer DeVito ... attempts to do too many things in this story about ethics , payola , vice , murder , kids ' TV and revenge .
__label__1	It would n't be my preferred way of spending 100 minutes or $ 7.00 .
__label__1	I hated every minute of it .
__label__2	( T ) hose same extremes prevent us from taking its message seriously , and the Stepford Wives mentality does n't work in a modern context .
__label__2	Obvious politics and rudimentary animation reduce the chances that the appeal of Hey Arnold !
__label__5	The Movie will reach far beyond its core demographic .
__label__3	There 's no mistaking the fact that this hybrid misses the impact of the Disney classic , and even that of the excellent 1934 MGM version .
__label__2	A simple , sometimes maddeningly slow film that has just enough charm and good acting to make it interesting , but is ultimately pulled under by the pacing and lack of creativity within .
__label__4	Roger Michell , who did an appealing job directing Persuasion and Notting Hill in England , gets too artsy in his American debut .
__label__3	There is an almost poignant dimension to the way that every major stunt Seagal 's character ... performs is shot from behind , as if it could fool us into thinking that we 're not watching a double .
__label__3	Anthony Hopkins ?
__label__3	Big deal !
__label__3	We 've already seen the prequel to The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal -- and it was better the first time .
__label__2	Ostensibly celebrates middle-aged girl power , even as it presents friendship between women as pathetic , dysfunctional and destructive .
__label__2	If this is an example of the type of project that Robert Redford 's lab is willing to lend its imprimatur to , then perhaps it 's time to rethink independent films .
__label__2	Pumpkin sits in a patch somewhere between mirthless Todd Solondzian satire and callow student film .
__label__2	Not so much funny as aggressively sitcom-cute , it 's full of throwaway one-liners , not-quite jokes , and a determined TV amiability that Allen personifies .
__label__3	It 's not that Waiting For Happiness is a bad film , because it is n't .
__label__1	It 's just incredibly dull .
__label__2	The sad thing about Knockaround Guys is its lame aspiration for grasping the coolness vibes when in fact the film is n't as flippant or slick as it thinks it is .
__label__2	A cumbersome and cliche-ridden movie greased with every emotional device known to man .
__label__4	Director Ferzan Ozpetek creates an interesting dynamic with the members of this group , who live in the same apartment building .
__label__2	But he loses his focus when he concentrates on any single person .
__label__2	Egoyan 's movie is too complicated to sustain involvement , and , if you 'll excuse a little critical heresy , too intellectually ambitious .
__label__3	It wants to be thought of as a subversive little indie film , but it has all the qualities of a modern situation comedy .
__label__2	Despite apparent motives to the contrary , it ends up being , like ( Seinfeld 's ) revered TV show , about pretty much nothing .
__label__1	Shadyac shoots his film like an M. Night Shyamalan movie , and he frequently maintains the same snail 's pace ; he just forgot to add any genuine tension .
__label__2	Plays less like a coming-of-age romance than an infomercial .
__label__2	There are a few laughs and clever sight gags scattered about , but not enough to make this anything more than another big-budget bust .
__label__1	The story 's so preposterous that I did n't believe it for a second , despite the best efforts of everyone involved .
__label__3	I 've heard that the fans of the first Men in Black have come away hating the second one .
__label__3	I wonder why .
__label__2	They felt like the same movie to me .
__label__3	Despite her relentless vim and winsome facial symmetry , Witherspoon is just too dialed-up to be America 's Sweetheart .
__label__2	An ultra-low-budget indie debut that smacks more of good intentions than talent .
__label__2	Birot is a competent enough filmmaker , but her story has nothing fresh or very exciting about it .
__label__4	De Niro and McDormand give solid performances , but their screen time is sabotaged by the story 's inability to create interest .
__label__2	Even those of a single digit age will be able to recognize that this story is too goofy ... even for Disney .
__label__3	That is essentially what 's missing from Blackboards -- the sense of something bigger , some ultimate point .
__label__2	A compendium of Solondz 's own worst instincts in under 90 minutes .
__label__1	It is a comedy that 's not very funny and an action movie that is not very thrilling ( and an uneasy alliance , at that ) .
__label__2	The story is familiar from its many predecessors ; like them , it eventually culminates in the not-exactly - stunning insight that crime does n't pay .
__label__1	You 'll have more fun setting fire to yourself in the parking lot .
__label__1	You 'll be more entertained getting hit by a bus .
__label__3	Dissing a Bond movie is quite like calling a dog stupid , but when it has the temerity to run over two hours , you feel like winding up with a kick .
__label__2	Ritchie 's treatment of the class reversal is majorly ham-fisted , from the repetitive manifestos that keep getting thrown in people 's faces to the fact Amber is such a joke .
__label__2	Flat , but with a revelatory performance by Michelle Williams .
__label__2	Little more than a frothy vanity project .
__label__3	The film goes from being an unusual sci-fi character study to a chase flick that detracts from its ending .
__label__2	Verbinski substitutes atmosphere for action , tedium for thrills .
__label__2	For all its surface frenzy , High Crimes should be charged with loitering -- so much on view , so little to offer .
__label__1	The Sum of All Fears is almost impossible to follow -- and there 's something cringe-inducing about seeing an American football stadium nuked as pop entertainment .
__label__3	Alex Nohe 's documentary plays like a travelogue for what mostly resembles a real-life , big-budget NC-17 version of Tank Girl .
__label__2	The title Trapped turns out to be a pretty fair description of how you feel while you 're watching this ultra-manipulative thriller .
__label__2	IHOPs do n't pile on this much syrup .
__label__4	For the most part , I Spy was an amusing lark that will probably rank as one of Murphy 's better performances in one of his lesser-praised movies .
__label__1	focuses on Joan 's raging hormones and sledgehammers the audience with Spanish inquisitions about her `` madness '' so much that I became mad that I wasted 123 minutes and $ 9.50 on this 21st century torture device .
__label__1	This series should have died long ago , but they keep bringing it back another day as punishment for paying money to see the last James Bond movie .
__label__2	A bit of an unwieldy mess .
__label__2	With a story as bizarre and mysterious as this , you do n't want to be worrying about whether the ineffectual Broomfield is going to have the courage to knock on that door .
__label__2	The filmmakers juggle and juxtapose three story lines but fail to come up with one cogent point , unless it 's that life stinks , especially for sensitive married women who really love other women .
__label__2	The movie feels like it 's going to be great , and it carries on feeling that way for a long time , but takeoff just never happens .
__label__2	A gimmick in search of a movie : how to get Carvey into as many silly costumes and deliver as many silly voices as possible , plot mechanics be damned .
__label__2	... the last time I saw a theater full of people constantly checking their watches was during my SATs .
__label__2	... fifty minutes of tedious adolescent melodramatics followed by thirty-five minutes of inflated nonsense .
__label__3	... lacks the punch and verve needed to make this genre soar .
__label__2	It 's often faintly amusing , but the problems of the characters never become important to us , and the story never takes hold .
__label__3	It 's tough , astringent , darkly funny and ... well , it 's also generic , untidy , condescending and mild of impact rather than stunning .
__label__3	Largely a for-fans artifact .
__label__2	There 's no denying the elaborateness of the artist 's conceptions , nor his ability to depict them with outrageous elan , but really the whole series is so much pretentious nonsense , lavishly praised by those who equate obscurity with profundity .
__label__2	Characters wander into predictably treacherous situations even though they should know better .
__label__2	There 's plenty of style in Guillermo Del Toro 's sequel to the 1998 hit but why do we need 117 minutes to tell a tale that simply ca n't sustain more than 90 minutes .
__label__2	( I ) f you 've been to more than one indie flick in your life , chances are you 've already seen this kind of thing .
__label__1	No reason for anyone to invest their hard-earned bucks into a movie which obviously did n't invest much into itself either .
__label__2	A strong first quarter , slightly less so second quarter , and average second half .
__label__1	A boring , wincingly cute and nauseatingly politically correct cartoon guaranteed to drive anyone much over age 4 screaming from the theater .
__label__2	The vampire thriller Blade II starts off as a wild hoot and then sucks the blood out of its fun -- toward the end , you can feel your veins cringing from the workout .
__label__2	When the first few villians are introduced as `` Spider '' and `` Snake '' you know you 're in for a real winner , creativity at its peak .
__label__2	An Afterschool Special without the courage of its convictions .
__label__3	The final result makes for adequate entertainment , I suppose , but anyone who has seen Chicago on stage will leave the theater feeling they 've watched nothing but a pale imitation of the real deal .
__label__2	( Director ) Byler may yet have a great movie in him , but Charlotte Sometimes is only half of one .
__label__2	So few movies explore religion that it 's disappointing to see one reduce it to an idea that fits in a sampler .
__label__3	It 's also clear from the start that The Transporter is running purely on adrenaline , and once the initial high wears off , the film 's shortcomings start to shine through .
__label__2	Watching it is rather like viewing a long soap opera in which only the first episode was any good .
__label__3	It 's fun , but a psychological mess , with Austin Powers bumping his head on the way out of the closet .
__label__2	There are touching moments in Etoiles , but for the most part this is a dull , dour documentary on what ought to be a joyful or at least fascinating subject .
__label__2	Could the whole plan here have been to produce something that makes Fatal Attraction look like a classic by comparison ?
__label__3	That 's the only sane rationale I can think of for Swimfan 's existence .
__label__2	I did n't laugh at the ongoing efforts of Cube , and his skinny buddy Mike Epps , to make like Laurel and Hardy 'n the hood .
__label__1	The only way this supernatural snore-fest could give anyone a case of the frights is if they were put to sleep by the movie and had a nightmare .
__label__3	I wonder what the reaction of Israelis will be to this supposedly evenhanded presentation .
__label__1	The film would work much better as a video installation in a museum , where viewers would be free to leave .
__label__3	Immediately .
__label__3	Human Nature initially succeeds by allowing itself to go crazy , but ultimately fails by spinning out of control .
__label__2	( It 's ) a prison soccer movie starring charismatic tough guy Vinnie Jones , but it had too much spitting for me to enjoy .
__label__1	Not even the Hanson Brothers can save it
__label__2	The thriller side of this movie is falling flat , as the stalker does n't do much stalking , and no cop or lawyer grasps the concept of actually investigating the case .
__label__2	... ( a ) strained comedy that jettisons all opportunities for Rock to make his mark by serving up the usual chaotic nonsense .
__label__1	A sour , nasty offering .
__label__1	Feels like one of those contrived , only-in - Hollywood productions where name actors deliver big performances created for the sole purpose of generating Oscar talk .
__label__1	Obstacles are too easily overcome and there is n't much in the way of character development in the script .
__label__3	It tells more than it shows .
__label__2	Earnest falls short of its Ideal predecessor largely due to Parker 's ill-advised meddling with the timeless source material .
__label__2	The film might have been more satisfying if it had , in fact , been fleshed out a little more instead of going for easy smiles .
__label__2	Pretentious editing ruins a potentially terrific flick .
__label__2	Not every animated film from Disney will become a classic , but forgive me if I 've come to expect more from this studio than some 79-minute after-school `` cartoon '' .
__label__1	Do not , under any circumstances , consider taking a child younger than middle school age to this wallow in crude humor .
__label__1	Nothing debases a concept comedy quite like the grinding of bad ideas , and Showtime is crammed full of them .
__label__2	Much-anticipated and ultimately lackluster movie .
__label__3	This is really just another genre picture .
__label__3	Each story on its own could have been expanded and worked into a compelling single feature , but in its current incarnation , Storytelling never quite gets over its rather lopsided conception .
__label__3	William Shatner , as a pompous professor , is the sole bright spot ...
__label__3	A trite psychological thriller designed to keep the audience guessing and guessing -- which is not to be confused with suspecting -- until it comes time to wrap things up and send the viewers home .
__label__1	Neither funny nor suspenseful nor particularly well-drawn .
__label__2	Acting , particularly by Tambor , almost makes `` Never Again '' worthwhile , but ( writer/director ) Schaeffer should follow his titular advice
__label__3	Both stars manage to be funny , but , like the recent I Spy , the star chemistry begs the question of whether random gags add up to a movie .
__label__2	`` Collateral Damage '' goes by the numbers and reps decent action entertainment -- until the silly showdown ending that forces the viewer to totally suspend disbelief
__label__1	` Enigma ' is a good name for a movie this delibrately obtuse and unapproachable .
__label__1	A waste of good performances .
__label__1	A dreary , incoherent , self-indulgent mess of a movie in which a bunch of pompous windbags drone on inanely for two hours ... a cacophony of pretentious , meaningless prattle .
__label__2	I kept thinking over and over again , ' I should be enjoying this . '
__label__2	But I was n't .
__label__2	As conceived by Mr. Schaeffer , Christopher and Grace are little more than collections of quirky traits lifted from a screenwriter 's outline and thrown at actors charged with the impossible task of making them jell .
__label__1	Like so many other allegedly scary movies , it gets so tangled up in The Twist that it chokes the energy right out of the very audience it seeks to frighten .
__label__2	The essential problem in Orange County is that , having created an unusually vivid set of characters worthy of its strong cast , the film flounders when it comes to giving them something to do .
__label__1	Just like Hearst 's enormous yacht , it 's slow and unwieldy and takes a long time to reach its destination .
__label__1	There is not a character in the movie with a shred of plausibility , not an event that is believable , not a confrontation that is not staged , not a moment that is not false .
__label__2	Where last time jokes flowed out of Cho 's life story , which provided an engrossing dramatic through line , here the comedian hides behind obviously constructed routines .
__label__2	Why come up with something even quasi-original , when you can pillage from Shirley Jackson , Richard Matheson ... and puke up something like ROSE RED ?
__label__4	A broadly played , lowbrow comedy in which the cast delivers mildly amusing performances and no farm animals were injured by any of the gags .
__label__2	... too gory to be a comedy and too silly to be an effective horror film .
__label__1	Lacks heart , depth and , most of all , purpose .
__label__4	Though a bit of a patchwork in script and production , a glossy , rich green , environment almost makes the picture work .
__label__3	perfectly enjoyable , instantly forgettable , nothing to write home about .
__label__4	Wasabi is slight fare indeed , with the entire project having the feel of something tossed off quickly ( like one of Hubert 's punches ) , but it should go down smoothly enough with popcorn .
__label__3	Somehow both wildly implausible and strangely conventional .
__label__3	This ill-fitting Tuxedo is strictly off-the-rack .
__label__1	The premise is in extremely bad taste , and the film 's supposed insights are so poorly thought-out and substance-free that even a high school senior taking his or her first psychology class could dismiss them .
__label__2	Sets up a nice concept for its fiftysomething leading ladies , but fails loudly in execution .
__label__3	Kidman is really the only thing that 's worth watching in Birthday Girl , a film by the stage-trained Jez Butterworth ( Mojo ) that serves as yet another example of the sad decline of British comedies in the post-Full Monty world .
__label__2	Imagine the James Woods character from Videodrome making a home movie of Audrey Rose and showing it to the kid from The Sixth Sense and you 've imagined The Ring .
__label__1	This time Kaufman 's imagination has failed him .
__label__2	An intermittently pleasing but mostly routine effort .
__label__2	It becomes gimmicky instead of compelling .
__label__2	Frenetic but not really funny .
__label__2	Taken individually or collectively , the stories never add up to as much as they promise .
__label__2	If you 're not a prepubescent girl , you 'll be laughing at Britney Spears ' movie-starring debut whenever it does n't have you impatiently squinting at your watch .
__label__1	A didactic and dull documentary glorifying software anarchy .
__label__2	Sluggishly directed by episodic TV veteran Joe Zwick , it 's a sitcom without the snap-crackle .
__label__2	You could nap for an hour and not miss a thing .
__label__3	Director Clare Kilner 's debut is never as daft as it should have been .
__label__1	New Best Friend should n't have gone straight to video ; it should have gone straight to a Mystery Science Theater 3000 video .
__label__3	Wallace seems less like he 's been burning to tell a war story than he 's been itching to somehow tack one together
__label__2	The thrill is ( long ) gone .
__label__1	Began life as a computer game , then morphed into a movie -- a bad one , of course .
__label__3	Part comedy , part drama , the movie winds up accomplishing neither in full , and leaves us feeling touched and amused by several moments and ideas , but nevertheless dissatisfied with the movie as a whole .
__label__1	Godawful boring slug of a movie .
__label__2	Dull , if not devoid of wit , this shaggy dog longs to frisk through the back alleys of history , but scarcely manages more than a modest , snoozy charm .
__label__2	Scene-by-scene , things happen , but you 'd be hard-pressed to say what or why .
__label__2	... an unimaginative , nasty , glibly cynical piece of work .
__label__3	It is , by conventional standards , a fairly terrible movie ... but it is also weirdly fascinating , a ready-made Eurotrash cult object .
__label__4	It is also , at times , curiously moving .
__label__2	The tug-of-war at the core of Beijing Bicycle becomes weighed down with agonizing contrivances , overheated pathos and long , wistful gazes .
__label__1	Vile and tacky are the two best adjectives to describe Ghost Ship .
__label__2	Some decent actors inflict big damage upon their reputations .
__label__2	Being author Wells ' great-grandson , you 'd think filmmaker Simon Wells would have more reverence for the material .
__label__1	But this costly dud is a far cry from either the book or the beloved film .
__label__2	Offensive in the way it exploits the hot-button issue of domestic abuse for cheap thrills and disgusting in the manner it repeatedly puts a small child in jeopardy , treating her as little more than a prop to be cruelly tormented .
__label__2	Mark me down as a non-believer in werewolf films that are not serious and rely on stupidity as a substitute for humor .
__label__2	Aspires for the piquant but only really achieves a sort of ridiculous sourness .
__label__2	Accuracy and realism are terrific , but if your film becomes boring , and your dialogue is n't smart , then you need to use more poetic license .
__label__2	For all its highfalutin title and corkscrew narrative , the movie turns out to be not much more than a shaggy human tale .
__label__2	A soggy , cliche-bound epic-horror yarn that ends up being even dumber than its title .
__label__2	One groan-inducing familiarity begets another .
__label__1	Although based on a real-life person , John , in the movie , is a rather dull person to be stuck with for two hours .
__label__3	Great story , bad idea for a movie .
__label__1	With Spy Kids 2 : The Island of Lost Dreams writer/director/producer Robert Rodriguez has cobbled together a film that feels like a sugar high gone awry .
__label__2	There is no entry portal in The Rules of Attraction , and I spent most of the movie feeling depressed by the shallow , selfish , greedy characters .
__label__2	It 's hard to tell with all the crashing and banging where the salesmanship ends and the movie begins .
__label__3	`` My god , I 'm behaving like an idiot ! ''
__label__3	Yes , you are , Ben Kingsley .
__label__1	A dreadful live-action movie .
__label__2	Divertingly ridiculous , headbangingly noisy .
__label__3	An earnest racial-issues picture that might have gotten respectful critical praise in a different era -- say , the '60s .
__label__2	A hideous , confusing spectacle , one that may well put the nail in the coffin of any future Rice adaptations .
__label__1	All I can say is fuhgeddaboutit .
__label__2	Between bedroom scenes , viewers may find themselves wishing they could roll over and take a nap .
__label__2	If you collected all the moments of coherent dialogue , they still would n't add up to the time required to boil a four - minute egg .
__label__3	Despite all the talking , by the time the bloody climax arrives we still do n't feel enough of an attachment to these guys to care one way or another .
__label__1	Every bit as bogus as most Disney live action family movies are -- no real plot , no real conflict , no real point .
__label__4	A sensual performance from Abbass buoys the flimsy story , but her inner journey is largely unexplored and we 're left wondering about this exotic-looking woman whose emotional depths are only hinted at .
__label__2	Never engaging , utterly predictable and completely void of anything remotely interesting or suspenseful .
__label__1	Spousal abuse is a major problem in contemporary society , but the film reduces this domestic tragedy to florid melodrama .
__label__1	Oedekerk wrote Patch Adams , for which he should not be forgiven .
__label__1	Why he was given free reign over this project -- he wrote , directed , starred and produced -- is beyond me .
__label__2	The creaking , rusty ship makes a fine backdrop , but the ghosts ' haunting is routine .
__label__4	Whatever Eyre 's failings as a dramatist , he deserves credit for bringing audiences into this hard and bitter place .
__label__3	Scotland , PA. blurs the line between black comedy and black hole .
__label__2	It tries too hard , and overreaches the logic of its own world .
__label__2	The whole damn thing is ripe for the Jerry Springer crowd .
__label__2	It 's all pretty cynical and condescending , too .
__label__1	I cry for I Spy -- or I would if this latest and laziest imaginable of all vintage-TV spinoffs were capable of engendering an emotional response of any kind .
__label__1	A boring , formulaic mix of serial killers and stalk 'n' slash .
__label__4	What you would end up with if you took Orwell , Bradbury , Kafka , George Lucas and the Wachowski Brothers and threw them into a blender .
__label__2	But that 's just the problem with it - the director has n't added enough of his own ingredients .
__label__3	With recent tensions rekindled by the Kathleen Soliah trial and the upcoming trial of SLA members Emily and William Harris , not to mention Sept. 11 , its difficult these days to appreciate Fire 's bright side .
__label__2	Flaunts its quirky excesses like a New Year 's Eve drunk sporting a paper party hat .
__label__1	Writhing under dialogue like ` You 're from two different worlds ' and ` Tonight the maid is a lie and this , this is who you are , ' this schlock-filled fairy tale hits new depths of unoriginality and predictability .
__label__1	... too slow , too boring , and occasionally annoying .
__label__3	Is there enough material to merit a documentary on the making of Wilco 's last album ?
__label__3	Faultlessly professional but finally slight .
__label__1	Schmaltzy and unfunny , Adam Sandler 's cartoon about Hanukkah is numbingly bad , Little Nicky bad , 10 Worst List bad .
__label__2	It 's really yet another anemic and formulaic Lethal Weapon-derived buddy-cop movie , trying to pass off its lack of imagination as hip knowingness .
__label__1	Scotland , Pa. is a strangely drab romp .
__label__2	Some studio pizazz might have helped .
__label__3	When Perry fists a bull at the Moore Farm , it 's only a matter of time before he gets the upper hand in matters of the heart .
__label__2	There 's more scatological action in 8 Crazy Nights than a proctologist is apt to encounter in an entire career .
__label__1	Too loud , too long and too frantic by half , Die Another Day suggests that the Bond franchise has run into a creative wall that 007 can not fly over , tunnel under or barrel through .
__label__3	The cartoon is about as true to the spirit of the Festival of Lights as Mr. Deeds was to that of Frank Capra .
__label__1	... the sum of the parts equals largely a confused mediocrity .
__label__2	The tone shifts abruptly from tense to celebratory to soppy .
__label__2	If we do n't demand a standard of quality for the art that we choose , we deserve the trash that we get .
__label__2	A modest and messy metaphysical thriller offering more questions than answers .
__label__1	Julia is played with exasperating blandness by Laura Regan .
__label__3	Morrissette 's script and direction show a fair amount of intelligence and wit -- but it does n't signify a whole lot either .
__label__2	There 's suspension of disbelief and then there 's bad screenwriting ... this film packs a wallop of the latter .
__label__3	All Ms. Jovovich , as the sanctified heroine , has to do is look radiant , grimly purposeful and mildly alarmed while forcing open doors , wielding wrenches and fleeing monsters .
__label__3	Mocking kung fu pictures when they were a staple of exploitation theater programming was witty .
__label__2	Mocking them now is an exercise in pointlessness .
__label__2	This is a particularly toxic little bonbon , palatable to only a chosen and very jaundiced few .
__label__1	This is n't just the CliffsNotes version of Nicholas Nickleby , it 's the CliffsNotes with pages missing .
__label__2	Considering the harsh locations and demanding stunts , this must have been a difficult shoot , but the movie proves rough going for the audience as well .
__label__1	Better at putting you to sleep than a sound machine .
__label__2	So clichéd that , at one point , they literally upset an apple cart .
__label__4	It 's a decent glimpse into a time period , and an outcast , that is no longer accessible , but it does n't necessarily shed more light on its subject than the popular predecessor .
__label__3	It might be the first sci-fi comedy that could benefit from a Three 's Company-style laugh track .
__label__2	When the plot kicks in , the film loses credibility .
__label__2	Credibility sinks into a mire of sentiment .
__label__2	The movie takes itself too seriously and , as a result , it makes for only intermittent fun .
__label__4	( Davis ) has a bright , chipper style that keeps things moving , while never quite managing to connect her wish-fulfilling characters to the human race .
__label__2	Does n't amount to much of anything .
__label__1	Bullock 's complete lack of focus and ability quickly derails the film
__label__1	So stupid , so ill-conceived , so badly drawn , it created whole new levels of ugly .
__label__2	The truth is that The Truth About Charlie gets increasingly tiresome .
__label__3	Enduring love but exhausting cinema .
__label__1	Some of Seagal 's action pictures are guilty pleasures , but this one is so formulaic that it seems to be on auto-pilot .
__label__3	A ponderous meditation on love that feels significantly longer than its relatively scant 97 minutes .
__label__2	A long-winded and stagy session of romantic contrivances that never really gels like the shrewd feminist fairy tale it could have been .
__label__2	A little too pat for its own good .
__label__2	There are films that try the patience of even the most cinema-besotted critic -- and this was one of them .
__label__2	Watching Trouble Every Day , at least if you do n't know what 's coming , is like biting into what looks like a juicy , delicious plum on a hot summer day and coming away with your mouth full of rotten pulp and living worms .
__label__2	Well-intentioned though it may be , its soap-opera morality tales have the antiseptic , preprogrammed feel of an after-school special .
__label__3	What would Jesus do if He was a film director ?
__label__2	He 'd create a movie better than this .
__label__1	When a set of pre-shooting guidelines a director came up with for his actors turns out to be cleverer , better written and of considerable more interest than the finished film , that 's a bad sign .
__label__1	A very bad sign .
__label__3	It 's a deeply serious movie that cares passionately about its subject , but too often becomes ponderous in its teaching of history , or lost in the intricate connections and multiple timelines of its story .
__label__3	Ca n't kick about the assembled talent and the Russos show genuine promise as comic filmmakers .
__label__2	Still , this thing feels flimsy and ephemeral .
__label__5	Diane Lane shines in Unfaithful .
__label__2	Almost everything else is wan .
__label__3	I 'm afraid you wo n't get through this frankly fantastical by-the-numbers B-flick with just a suspension of disbelief .
__label__1	Rather , you 'll have to wrestle disbelief to the ground and then apply the chloroform-soaked handkerchief .
__label__3	So relentlessly wholesome it made me want to swipe something .
__label__3	The title helpfully offers the most succinct review of it you 'll read anywhere .
__label__2	The makers of Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood should offer a free ticket ( second prize , of course , two free tickets ) to anyone who can locate a genuinely honest moment in their movie .
__label__2	God help the poor woman if Attal is this insecure in real life : his fictional Yvan 's neuroses are aggravating enough to exhaust the patience of even the most understanding spouse .
__label__1	Let 's cut to the consumer-advice bottom line : Stay home .
__label__2	Undercover Brother does n't go far enough .
__label__2	It 's just a silly black genre spoof .
__label__3	The film 's implicit premise is that the faith of the Tonga people is in every way inferior to that of John .
__label__2	Rates an ` E ' for effort -- and a ` B ' for boring .
__label__3	You 've already seen Heartbreak if you 've watched the far superior Nurse Betty or Sunset Boulevard .
__label__1	Even the unwatchable Soapdish is more original .
__label__3	A journey that 's too random and inconclusive to be compelling , but which Hoffman 's brilliance almost makes worth taking .
__label__2	The movie bounces all over the map .
__label__2	But buying into sham truths and routine `` indie '' filmmaking , Freundlich has made just another safe movie .
__label__1	It 's not horrible , just horribly mediocre .
__label__3	Not always too whimsical for its own good ( but enough to do harm ) , this strange hybrid of crime thriller , quirky character study , third-rate romance and female empowerment fantasy never really finds the tonal or thematic glue it needs .
__label__3	It 's a sometimes interesting remake that does n't compare to the brilliant original .
__label__3	You 're too conscious of the effort it takes to be this spontaneous .
__label__2	Feel bad for King , who 's honestly trying , and Schwartzman , who 's shot himself in the foot .
__label__3	Some actors steal scenes .
__label__2	Tom Green just gives them a bad odor .
__label__1	This self-infatuated goofball is far from the only thing wrong with the clumsy comedy Stealing Harvard , but he 's the most obvious one .
__label__3	Sometimes , fond memories should stay in the past : a lesson this film teaches all too well .
__label__2	The enormous comic potential of an oafish idiot impersonating an aristocrat remains sadly unrealized .
__label__2	Begins as a promising meditation on one of America 's most durable obsessions but winds up as a slender cinematic stunt .
__label__2	A monster combat thriller as impersonal in its relentlessness as the videogame series that inspired it .
__label__2	Proof that a thriller can be sleekly shot , expertly cast , paced with crisp professionalism ... and still be a letdown if its twists and turns hold no more surprise than yesterday 's weather report .
__label__2	The reason we keep seeing the same movie with roughly the same people every year is because so many of us keep going and then , out of embarrassment or stupidity , not warning anyone .
__label__3	There 's not much going on in this movie unless you simply decide to buy into the notion that something inexplicably strange once happened in Point Pleasant .
__label__2	In the second half of the film , Frei 's control loosens in direct proportion to the amount of screen time he gives Nachtwey for self-analysis .
__label__3	Director Barry Skolnick and his screenwriters glibly tick off every point of `` The Longest Yard '' playbook like a checklist .
__label__2	The furious coherence that ( DeNiro ) brings to this part only underscores the fuzzy sentimentality of the movie itself , which feels , as it plods toward the end , less like a movie than like the filmed reading of a script in need of polishing .
__label__3	Oh , it 's extreme , all right .
__label__1	Extremely dumb .
__label__2	Extremely confusing .
__label__1	Extremely boring .
__label__1	We never really feel involved with the story , as all of its ideas remain just that : abstract ideas .
__label__2	For a shoot - 'em - up , Ballistic is oddly lifeless .
__label__2	One minute , you think you 're watching a serious actioner ; the next , it 's as though clips from The Pink Panther Strikes Again and/or Sailor Moon have been spliced in .
__label__2	What happened with Pluto Nash ?
__label__1	How did it ever get made ?
__label__3	We may never think of band camp as a geeky or nerdy thing again .
__label__2	Opens as promising as any war/adventure film you 'll ever see and dissolves into a routine courtroom drama , better suited for a movie titled `` Glory : A Soldier 's Story . ''
__label__2	The result is solemn and horrifying , yet strangely detached .
__label__2	These spiders can outrun a motorcycle and wrap a person in a sticky cocoon in seconds , but they fall short of being interesting or entertaining .
__label__2	A long slog for anyone but the most committed Pokemon fan .
__label__1	Matthew McConaughey tries , and fails , to control the screen with swaggering machismo and over-the-top lunacy .
__label__1	How on earth , or anywhere else , did director Ron Underwood manage to blow $ 100 million on this ?
__label__2	Everyone connected to this movie seems to be part of an insider clique , which tends to breed formulaic films rather than fresh ones .
__label__2	With a story inspired by the tumultuous surroundings of Los Angeles , where feelings of marginalization loom for every dreamer with a burst bubble , The Dogwalker has a few characters and ideas , but it never manages to put them on the same path .
__label__2	Its lack of quality earns it a place alongside those other two recent Dumas botch-jobs , The Man in the Iron Mask and The Musketeer .
__label__2	A benign but forgettable sci-fi diversion .
__label__1	The plot grinds on with yawn-provoking dullness .
__label__1	It 's never a good sign when a film 's star spends the entirety of the film in a coma .
__label__3	It 's a worse sign when you begin to envy her condition .
__label__1	It does n't help that the director and cinematographer Stephen Kazmierski shoot on grungy video , giving the whole thing a dirty , tasteless feel .
__label__1	Desperately unfunny when it tries to makes us laugh and desperately unsuspenseful when it tries to make us jump out of our seats .
__label__2	This film 's relationship to actual tension is the same as what Christmas-tree flocking in a spray can is to actual snow : a poor -- if durable -- imitation .
__label__1	John McTiernan 's botched remake may be subtler than Norman Jewison 's 1975 ultraviolent futuristic corporate-sports saga .
__label__2	It 's also stupider .
__label__2	Director Dirk Shafer and co-writer Greg Hinton ride the dubious divide where gay porn reaches for serious drama .
__label__2	Borrows from so many literary and cinematic sources that this future world feels absolutely deja vu .
__label__1	As ( the characters ) get more depressed , the story gets more tiresome , especially as it continues to mount a conspicuous effort to be profound .
__label__2	The acting by the over-25s lacks spark , with Csokas particularly unconnected .
__label__2	Though Howard demonstrates a great eye as a director , this Southern Gothic drama is sadly a tough sit , with an undeveloped narrative and enough flashbacks and heavy-handed metaphors to choke a horse -- or at least slow him down to a canter .
__label__2	Falters when it takes itself too seriously and when it depends too heavily on its otherwise talented cast to clown in situations that are n't funny .
__label__2	The fight scenes are fun , but it grows tedious .
__label__2	Anyone who can count to five ( the film 's target market ? )
__label__2	can see where this dumbed-down concoction is going .
__label__2	All this turns out to be neither funny nor provocative - only dull .
__label__2	Demme 's loose approach kills the suspense .
__label__1	This idea has lost its originality ... and neither star appears very excited at rehashing what was basically a one-joke picture .
__label__2	( Plays ) in broad outline as pandering middle-age buddy-comedy .
__label__2	The film is itself a sort of cinematic high crime , one that brings military courtroom dramas down very , very low .
__label__1	Nothing more than a mediocre trifle .
__label__1	A turgid little history lesson , humourless and dull .
__label__1	Too silly to be frightening , too stolid to be funny , it projects the same lazy affability as its nominal star , David Arquette .
__label__2	If Kaufman kept Cameron Diaz a prisoner in a cage with her ape , in his latest , he 'd have them mate .
__label__1	Trivial where it should be profound , and hyper-cliched where it should be sincere .
__label__1	It would be hard to think of a recent movie that has worked this hard to achieve this little fun .
__label__2	Theology aside , why put someone who ultimately does n't learn at the center of a kids ' story ?
__label__2	All that ( Powerpuff Girls ) charm is present in the movie , but it 's spread too thin .
__label__3	Sometimes smart but more often sophomoric .
__label__2	The ill-conceived modern-day ending falls flat where it should deliver a moral punch .
__label__2	Collateral Damage is , despite its alleged provocation post-9 / 11 , an antique , in the end .
__label__2	As are its star , its attitude and its obliviousness .
__label__2	Dawdles and drags when it should pop ; it does n't even have the virtue of enough mindless violence to break up the tedium of all its generational bonding .
__label__2	Its save-the-planet message clashes with its crass marketing .
__label__2	A great idea becomes a not-great movie .
__label__1	... watching this film nearly provoked me to take my own life .
__label__4	And if The Hours wins ` Best Picture ' I just might .
__label__2	By the end , I was looking for something hard with which to bludgeon myself unconscious .
__label__2	Not a movie but a live-action agitprop cartoon so shameless and coarse , it 's almost funny .
__label__2	Feels like six different movies fighting each other for attention .
__label__2	Life is a crock -- or something like it .
__label__1	Made by jackasses for jackasses .
__label__2	Despite a powerful portrayal by Binoche , it 's a period romance that suffers from an overly deliberate pace and uneven narrative momentum .
__label__2	The picture is a primer on what happens when lack of know-how mixes with lack of give-a-damn .
__label__1	Bartleby is a one-joke movie , and a bad joke at that .
__label__2	Given that both movies expect us to root for convicted violent felons over those assigned to protect us from same , we need every bit of sympathy the cons can muster ; this time , there is n't much .
__label__2	A bravura exercise in emptiness .
__label__1	Philip K. Dick must be turning in his grave , along with my stomach .
__label__2	Despite the premise of a good story ... it wastes all its star power on cliched or meaningless roles .
__label__3	All prints of this film should be sent to and buried on Pluto .
__label__2	Not only does the movie fail to make us part of its reality , it fails the most basic relevancy test as well .
__label__2	First good , then bothersome .
__label__5	Excellent acting and direction .
__label__2	This goofy gangster yarn never really elevates itself from being yet another earnestly generic crime-busting comic vehicle -- a well-intentioned remake that shows some spunk and promise but fails to register as anything distinctive or daring
__label__1	It 's difficult to say whether The Tuxedo is more boring or embarrassing -- I 'm prepared to call it a draw .
__label__2	Even as lame horror flicks go , this is lame .
__label__2	So routine , familiar and predictable , it raises the possibility that it wrote itself as a newly automated Final Draft computer program .
__label__2	Sunshine State lacks the kind of dynamic that Limbo offers , and in some ways is a rather indulgent piece .
__label__2	Even legends like Alfred Hitchcock and John Huston occasionally directed trifles ... so it 's no surprise to see a world-class filmmaker like Zhang Yimou behind the camera for a yarn that 's ultimately rather inconsequential .
__label__2	A long-winded , predictable scenario .
__label__2	Too close to Phantom Menace for comfort .
__label__2	Although trying to balance self-referential humor and a normal ol' slasher plot seemed like a decent endeavor , the result does n't fully satisfy either the die-hard Jason fans or those who can take a good joke .
__label__2	Too clunky and too busy ribbing itself to be truly entertaining .
__label__3	This movie is about lying , cheating , but loving the friends you betray .
__label__2	It smacks of purely commercial motivation , with no great love for the original .
__label__3	Melanie eventually slugs the Yankee .
__label__2	Too bad the former Murphy Brown does n't pop Reese back .
__label__2	At the bottom rung of the series ' entries .
__label__1	A real clunker .
__label__3	A well-made , thoughtful , well-acted clunker , but a clunker nonetheless .
__label__2	A dreary rip-off of Goodfellas that serves as a muddled and offensive cautionary tale for Hispanic Americans .
__label__2	The picture , scored by a perversely cheerful Marcus Miller accordion/harmonica/banjo abomination , is a monument to bad in all its florid variety .
__label__2	Good for a few unintentional laughs , `` Extreme Ops '' was obviously made for the `` XXX '' crowd , people who enjoy mindless action without the benefit of decent acting , writing , and direction .
__label__2	... a big , baggy , sprawling carnival of a movie , stretching out before us with little rhyme or reason .
__label__2	A frustrating combination of strained humor and heavy-handed sentimentality .
__label__3	Lawrence preaches strictly to the converted .
__label__1	As written by Michael Berg and Michael J. Wilson from a story by Wilson , this relentless , all-wise-guys-all-the-time approach tries way too hard and gets tiring in no time at all .
__label__2	Will probably stay in the shadow of its two older , more accessible Qatsi siblings .
__label__2	Just when the movie seems confident enough to handle subtlety , it dives into soapy bathos .
__label__1	Choppy editing and too many repetitive scenes spoil what could have been an important documentary about stand-up comedy .
__label__2	... the film falls back on the same old formula of teen sex , outrageous pranks and scenes designed to push the envelope of bad taste for laughs .
__label__2	The only thing in Pauline and Paulette that you have n't seen before is a scene featuring a football field-sized Oriental rug crafted out of millions of vibrant flowers .
__label__1	If you 're looking for comedy to be served up , better look elsewhere .
__label__2	It virtually defines a comedy that 's strongly mediocre , with funny bits surfacing every once in a while .
__label__1	An instant candidate for worst movie of the year .
__label__3	Despite its title , Amy 's Orgasm is not a porno , though it is as tedious as one .
__label__1	Like a tone-deaf singer at a benefit concert , John Q. is a bad movie appearing on behalf of a good cause .
__label__1	Adam Sandler is to Gary Cooper what a gnat is to a racehorse .
__label__4	What kids will discover is a new collectible .
__label__2	What parents will suspect is that they 're watching a 76-minute commercial .
__label__3	Beers , who , when she 's given the right lines , can charm the paint off the wall ... ( but ) the script goes wrong at several key junctures .
__label__2	Without September 11 , Collateral Damage would have been just another bad movie .
__label__1	Now it 's a bad , embarrassing movie .
__label__2	Drags along in a dazed and enervated , drenched-in-the - past numbness .
__label__3	There 's a disturbing ` Great White Hope ' undertone to The Other Side of Heaven that subtly undermines its message of Christian love and compassion .
__label__2	Unless you are in dire need of a Diesel fix , there is no real reason to see it .
__label__1	Wait for video -- and then do n't rent it .
__label__3	The attempt is courageous , even if the result is wildly uneven .
__label__2	There 's something fundamental missing from this story : something or someone to care about .
__label__1	Too much of this well-acted but dangerously slow thriller feels like a preamble to a bigger , more complicated story , one that never materializes .
__label__1	When a film is created SOLELY because it 's a marketable product , soulless and ugly movies like this are the result .
__label__2	Let your silly childhood nostalgia slumber unmolested .
__label__1	Unfortunately , Heartbreak Hospital wants to convey the same kind of haughtiness in its own sketchy material but this territory has already been explored previously with better aplomb and sardonic wit .
__label__2	The more Kevin Costner rests on his pretty-boy laurels , the public is , regrettably , going to have tepid films like Dragonfly tossed at them .
__label__2	( It 's ) difficult to get beyond the overall blandness of American Chai , despite its likable performances and refreshingly naive point of view .
__label__4	The latest installment in the Pokemon canon , Pokemon 4ever is surprising less moldy and trite than the last two , likely because much of the Japanese anime is set in a scenic forest where Pokemon graze in peace .
__label__3	Taken purely as an exercise in style , this oppressively gloomy techno-horror clambake is impossible to ignore .
__label__1	But as a movie , it 's a humorless , disjointed mess .
__label__2	If Myers decides to make another Austin Powers movie , maybe he should just stick with Austin and Dr Evil .
__label__1	The backyard battles you staged with your green plastic army men were more exciting and almost certainly made more sense .
__label__2	Too stupid to be satire , too obviously hateful to be classified otherwise , Frank Novak 's irritating slice of lumpen life is as reliably soul-killing as its title is nearly meaningless .
__label__3	Overly stylized with lots of flash black - & - white freeze frames reminiscent of a pseudo-hip luxury car commercial , ( it 's ) at its worst when it 's actually inside the ring .
__label__3	What is captured during the conceptual process does n't add up to a sufficient explanation of what the final dance work , The Selection , became in its final form .
__label__2	If this is satire , it 's the smug and self-congratulatory kind that lets the audience completely off the hook .
__label__3	Had the film boasted a clearer , more memorable , the creepiness would have gotten under the skin .
__label__1	These people would n't know subtle characterization if it put on a giant furry monster costume and then gave them a lapdance .
__label__2	Imagine if you will a Tony Hawk skating video interspliced with footage from Behind Enemy Lines and set to Jersey shore techno .
__label__3	It does n't quite work , but there 's enough here to make us look forward to the Russos ' next offering .
__label__2	Any film featuring young children threatened by a terrorist bomb can no longer pass as mere entertainment .
__label__2	The director 's twitchy sketchbook style and adroit perspective shifts grow wearisome amid leaden pacing and indifferent craftsmanship ( most notably wretched sound design ) .
__label__2	About as satisfying and predictable as the fare at your local drive through .
__label__2	Apparently kissing leads to suicide attempts and tragic deaths .
__label__1	Marisa Tomei is good , but Just A Kiss is just a mess .
__label__1	Opens at a funeral , ends on the protagonist 's death bed and does n't get much livelier in the three hours in between .
__label__2	The noble tradition of men in drag hits an all-time low in Sorority Boys , whose makers apparently believe that women 's clothing can cover up any deficiency in acting , writing or direction .
__label__3	To portray modern women the way director Davis has done is just unthinkable .
__label__3	Too simple for its own good .
__label__1	Flaccid drama and exasperatingly slow journey .
__label__2	A chaotic panorama that 's too busy flying a lot of metaphoric flags .
__label__1	Suffers from rambling , repetitive dialogue and the visual drabness endemic to digital video .
__label__2	The screenplay sabotages the movie 's strengths at almost every juncture .
__label__1	All the characters are stereotypes , and their interaction is numbingly predictable .
__label__1	A trashy , exploitative , thoroughly unpleasant experience .
__label__2	The performances are so leaden , Michael Rymer 's direction is so bloodless and the dialogue is so corny that the audience laughs out loud .
__label__3	A subtle variation on I Spit On Your Grave in which our purported heroine pathologically avenges a hatred for men .
__label__2	Reggio 's trippy , ambitious downer can also sometimes come across like nothing more than a glorified Nike ad .
__label__2	As Tweedy talks about canning his stockbroker and repairing his pool , you yearn for a few airborne TV sets or nude groupies on the nod to liven things up .
__label__2	If somebody was bored and ... decided to make a dull , pretentious version of Jesus ' Son , they 'd come up with something like Bart Freundlich 's World Traveler .
__label__2	The best you can say about it is it 's so uninspired , it barely gives one pause when considering some of the other dreck out there right now .
__label__4	A tough go , but Leigh 's depth and rigor , and his skill at inspiring accomplished portrayals that are all the more impressive for their lack of showiness , offsets to a notable degree the film 's often-mined and despairing milieu .
__label__2	An overstuffed compendium of teen-Catholic-movie dogma .
__label__3	Too leisurely paced and visually drab for its own good , it succeeds in being only sporadically amusing .
__label__3	Ben Affleck as Jack Ryan , Tom Clancy 's intrepid hero ?
__label__1	Ridiculous .
__label__4	What 's next ?
__label__3	D.J. Qualls as Indiana Jones ?
__label__3	Or Tom Green as Han Solo ?
__label__2	The movie 's biggest offense is its complete and utter lack of tension .
__label__3	The film is directed by Wally Wolodarsky from a script by Joe Jarvis and Greg Coolidge .
__label__1	These are names to remember , in order to avoid them in the future .
__label__1	If this is the resurrection of the Halloween franchise , it would have been better off dead .
__label__2	This formulaic chiller will do little to boost Stallone 's career .
__label__2	I saw Knockaround Guys yesterday , and already the details have faded like photographs from the Spanish-American War ... It 's so unmemorable that it turned my ballpoint notes to invisible ink .
__label__2	Though Avary has done his best to make something out of Ellis ' nothing novel , in the end , his Rules is barely worth following .
__label__3	The average local news columnist has a bigger rant on the war between modern landscape architecture and small-town America .
__label__3	No worse than a lot of the crap we 've been offered this summer , and slightly better than Men in Black 2 as far as slapdash extraterrestrial comedies go .
__label__2	The plot is so predictable and sentimental that viewers are likely to lose interest before Sandrine and her goats walk off into the sunset .
__label__2	At first , the sight of a blind man directing a film is hilarious , but as the film goes on , the joke wears thin .
__label__2	Never Again swings between false sentiment and unfunny madcap comedy and , along the way , expects the audience to invest in the central relationship as some kind of marriage of true minds .
__label__1	the story itself is uninteresting , and the songs are painfully undistinguished : They Might Be Giants ' So to Be One of Us may be the most tuneless tune ever composed .
__label__2	Technically , the film is about as interesting as an insurance commercial .
__label__1	The title 's lameness should clue you in on how bad the movie is .
__label__3	The parts are better than the whole ( bizarre , funny , tragic - like love in New York ) .
__label__3	While the film shuns the glamour or glitz that an American movie might demand , Scherfig tosses us a romantic scenario that is just as simplistic as a Hollywood production .
__label__2	The humor is hinged on the belief that knees in the crotch , elbows in the face and spit in the eye are inherently funny .
__label__2	It 's a movie forged in the fires of Chick Flick Hell .
__label__2	Its characters are thinner than cardboard -- or even comic-book paper .
__label__1	Any one episode of The Sopranos would send this ill-conceived folly to sleep with the fishes .
__label__3	Feels like the grittiest movie that was ever made for the Lifetime cable television network .
__label__2	Lanie 's professional success means she must be a failure at life , because she 's driven by ambition and Does n't Know How to Have Fun .
__label__4	Credit must be given to Harland Williams , Michael Rosenbaum and Barry Watson , who inject far more good-natured spirit and talent into this project than it deserves
__label__1	Denzel Washington 's efforts are sunk by all the sanctimony .
__label__1	If this holiday movie is supposed to be a gift , somebody unwrapped it early , took out all the good stuff , and left behind the crap ( literally ) .
__label__3	So faithful to the doldrums of the not-quite-urban , not-quite-suburban milieu as to have viewers recoiling from the reality check .
__label__1	Rambles on in a disjointed , substandard fashion from one poorly executed action sequence to the next .
__label__2	There 's an audience for it , but it could have been funnier and more innocent .
__label__2	I can only imagine one thing worse than Kevin Spacey trying on an Irish accent , and that 's sultry Linda Fiorentino doing the same thing .
__label__2	An awkward and indigestible movie .
__label__2	The movie has very little to offer besides unintentional laughs .
__label__3	Haneke keeps us at arm 's length .
__label__1	Guided more by intellect than heart , his story flattens instead of sharpens .
__label__1	All the well-meaningness in the world ca n't erase the fact that The Believer feels like a 12-Step Program for the Jewish Nazi .
__label__2	Like most sequels , it takes what worked last time , repeats it and adds more characters , more stunts , more stuff in attempt to camouflage its sameness .
__label__3	There 's no way to sort out the mess in our heads and deconstruct where it all went wrong .
__label__3	This is an hour and a half of daydreaming .
__label__4	Message movie or an action-packed submarine spectacular ?
__label__2	Alas , it 's neither .
__label__2	No movement , no yuks , not much of anything .
__label__2	` Dragonfly ' is a movie about a bus wreck that turns into a film wreck .
__label__2	Thirty years ago , it would have been groundbreaking .
__label__2	Now it 's just tired .
__label__3	Heavy-handed exercise in time-vaulting literary pretension .
__label__3	The movie is too cute to take itself too seriously , but it still feels like it was made by some very stoned college students .
__label__2	A thinly veiled excuse for Wilson to play his self-deprecating act against Murphy 's well-honed prima donna shtick .
__label__2	A minor picture with a major identity crisis -- it 's sort of true and it 's sort of bogus and it 's ho-hum all the way through .
__label__2	The movie succumbs to being nothing more than a formulaic chase in the dark .
__label__2	Plays as hollow catharsis , with lots of tears but very little in the way of insights .
__label__2	It will come as no surprise that the movie is n't scary .
__label__1	But here 's the real damn : It is n't funny , either .
__label__2	Quick : who wants to see a comedy about shoddy airport security ?
__label__3	The reason I found myself finally unmoved by this film , which is immaculately produced and has serious things to say , is that it comes across rather too plainly as allegory .
__label__1	What you get with Empire is a movie you 've seen many times before , repackaged as new material because there is a Latino in the lead .
__label__2	Cho 's fans are sure to be entertained ; it 's only fair in the interest of full disclosure to say that -- on the basis of this film alone -- I 'm not one of them .
__label__2	Looks awfully like one long tourist spot for a Mississippi that may never have existed outside of a scriptwriter 's imagination .
__label__2	The period -- swinging London in the time of the mods and the rockers -- gets the once-over once again in Gangster No. 1 , but falls apart long before the end .
__label__2	High Crimes miscasts nearly every leading character .
__label__2	The overall feel of the film is pretty cheesy , but there 's still a real sense that the Star Trek tradition has been honored as best it can , given the embarrassing script and weak direction .
__label__1	De Niro looks bored , Murphy recycles Murphy , and you mentally add Showtime to the pile of Hollywood dreck that represents nothing more than the art of the deal .
__label__2	I did n't believe for a moment in these villains or their plot .
__label__2	Another rent installment for the Ian Fleming estate .
__label__4	With Danilo Donati 's witty designs and Dante Spinotti 's luscious cinematography , this might have made a decent children 's movie -- if only Benigni had n't insisted on casting himself in the title role .
__label__2	So lazy and slipshod it confuses the mere flashing of kinky soft-core imagery with naughty fun .
__label__3	Though it draws several decent laughs , it 's low-cal Woody at best .
__label__2	Has little on its mind aside from scoring points with drag gags .
__label__2	Well-shot but badly written tale set in a future ravaged by dragons .
__label__2	Sadly , Hewitt 's forte is leaning forward while wearing low-cut gowns , not making snappy comebacks .
__label__1	If Melville is creatively a great whale , this film is canned tuna .
__label__2	This film is so slick , superficial and trend-hoppy , that it 's easy to imagine that a new software program spit out the screenplay .
__label__1	Just one more collection of penis , breast and flatulence gags in search of a story .
__label__3	Or a profit .
__label__2	Or some damn thing .
__label__1	The acting is stiff , the story lacks all trace of wit , the sets look like they were borrowed from Gilligan 's Island -- and the CGI Scooby might well be the worst special-effects creation of the year .
__label__1	Enough trivializes an important crisis , reduces it to an almost comic embarrassment .
__label__1	The makers have forsaken the entertaining elements of the original and , instead , rehash old jokes and leave any life at the doorstep .
__label__4	I like Frank the Pug , though .
__label__3	A restrained Ribisi convinces as an Italian , though if ever a movie needed one of the actor 's whiny jags to pump it up , this has to be among the rare ones .
__label__2	Gee , a second assassin shot Kennedy ?
__label__2	Moot point .
__label__2	A hysterical yet humorless disquisition on the thin line between sucking face and literally sucking face .
__label__1	Needless to say , the dramatics that follow are utter hooey .
__label__3	The problem is that rather than dramatizing this premise , Mr. Desplechin is content to state it .
__label__1	Madonna still ca n't act a lick .
__label__2	Even the imaginative gore ca n't hide the musty scent of Todd Farmer 's screenplay , which is a simple retread of the 1979 Alien , with a plucky heroine battling a monster loose in a spaceship .
__label__2	If you pitch your expectations at an all time low , you could do worse than this oddly cheerful -- but not particularly funny -- body-switching farce .
__label__4	The episodic film makes valid points about the depersonalization of modern life .
__label__2	But the characters tend to be cliches whose lives are never fully explored .
__label__5	Serry does a fine job of capturing the climate of the times and , perhaps unwittingly , relating it to what is happening in America in 2002 .
__label__2	But hard-to-believe plot twists force the movie off track in its final half hour .
__label__2	Do n't let your festive spirit go this far .
__label__2	Though the book runs only about 300 pages , it is so densely packed ... that even an ambitious adaptation and elaborate production like Mr. Schepisi 's seems skimpy and unclear .
__label__3	Hey , at least the title of this film lets you know exactly where it 's heading .
__label__2	Intended to be a comedy about relationships , this wretched work falls flat in just about every conceivable area .
__label__3	Sensitive though not quite revelatory documentary .
__label__2	Director Brian Levant , who never strays far from his sitcom roots , skates blithely from one implausible situation to another , pausing only to tie up loose ends with more bows than you 'll find on a French poodle .
__label__2	... perhaps the heaviest , most joyless movie ever made about giant dragons taking over the world .
__label__2	Suggests puns about ingredients and soup and somebody being off their noodle , but let 's just say the ingredients do n't quite add up to a meal .
__label__2	I 'd give real money to see the perpetrators of Chicago torn apart by dingoes .
__label__3	Movies like this are selling the old European candor , the old wink of ` bold ' revelation .
__label__3	But in 2002 , such revelations wilt .
__label__2	The timing in nearly every scene seems a half beat off .
__label__4	A fairly by-the-books blend of action and romance with sprinklings of intentional and unintentional comedy .
__label__2	Flounders due to the general sense that no two people working on the production had exactly the same thing in mind .
__label__3	Even if you feel like you 've seen this movie a thousand times before , it is kind of enjoyable thanks mainly to Belushi 's easy-going likableness .
__label__2	The story bogs down in a mess of purposeless violence .
__label__4	Despite some gulps the film is a fuzzy huggy .
__label__2	McKay deflates his piece of puffery with a sour cliche and heavy doses of mean-spiritedness
__label__1	A recipe for cinematic disaster ... part Quentin Tarantino , part Guy Ritchie , and part 1960s spy spoof , it 's all bad .
__label__3	The cumulative effect of the relentless horror on parade numbs the movie 's power as a work of drama .
__label__2	Another big , dumb action movie in the vein of XXX , The Transporter is riddled with plot holes big enough for its titular hero to drive his sleek black BMW through .
__label__3	Aaliyah rarely dampens her diva persona enough to spark genuine chemistry with Townsend .
__label__1	When she speaks , her creepy Egyptian demigod voice is as computer processed and overproduced as it was in her music .
__label__2	Outrageousness is all Plympton seemed to be going for this time .
__label__2	We miss the quirky amazement that used to come along for an integral part of the ride .
__label__1	Much of what is meant to be ` inspirational ' and ` uplifting ' is simply distasteful to audiences not already sharing ( the movie 's ) mindset .
__label__3	Well before it 's over , Beijing Bicycle begins spinning its wheels .
__label__2	Home Alone goes Hollywood , a funny premise until the kids start pulling off stunts not even Steven Spielberg would know how to do .
__label__3	Besides , real movie producers are n't this nice .
__label__3	( Nelson 's ) movie about morally compromised figures leaves viewers feeling compromised , unable to find their way out of the fog and the ashes .
__label__3	Passion , lip-synching , tragedy , and lots of really really high notes .
__label__1	For me , this opera is n't a favorite , so it 's a long time before the fat lady sings .
__label__1	Looks like a high school film project completed the day before it was due .
__label__2	Truth to tell , if you 've seen more than half-a-dozen horror films , there 's nothing here you have n't seen before .
__label__1	Abandons all pretense of creating historical context and waltzes off into a hectic soap about the ups and downs of the heavy breathing between the two artists .
__label__1	Even die-hard fans of Japanese animation ... will find this one a challenge .
__label__1	Filmmakers have to dig deep to sink this low .
__label__1	Fortunately for all involved , this movie is likely to disappear as quickly as an ice cube thrown into a pot of boiling water .
__label__2	The movie gets muted and routine .
__label__2	The issue of faith is not explored very deeply
__label__2	The situations and jokes are as predictable and as lowbrow as the endless pratfalls the boys take in their high heels .
__label__2	It 's frustrating to see these guys -- who are obviously pretty clever -- waste their talent on parodies of things they probably thought were funniest when they were high .
__label__2	I was perplexed to watch it unfold with an astonishing lack of passion or uniqueness .
__label__2	K-19 may not hold a lot of water as a submarine epic , but it holds even less when it turns into an elegiacally soggy Saving Private Ryanovich .
__label__2	A very stylish but ultimately extremely silly tale ... a slick piece of nonsense but nothing more .
__label__1	Automatically pegs itself for the straight-to-video sci-fi rental shelf .
__label__1	The film is like a series of beginnings and middles that never take off .
__label__2	Feels less like it 's about teenagers , than it was written by teenagers .
__label__3	Ja Rule and Kurupt should have gotten to rap .
__label__3	It would have benefitted the dialogue .
__label__3	A standard haunted house tale transplanted to the high seas .
__label__3	Elicits more groans from the audience than Jar Jar Binks , Scrappy Doo and Scooby Dumb , all wrapped up into one .
__label__1	It 's badly acted , blandly directed , and could have been scripted by someone who just graduated from elementary school .
__label__3	In the end , White Oleander is n't an adaptation of a novel .
__label__3	It 's a flashy , star-splashed reduction .
__label__3	This film , starring Anthony Hopkins and Chris Rock , is your typical ` fish out of water ' story .
__label__2	You 've seen them a million times .
__label__3	Just one problem : Fish out of water usually die .
__label__3	This one does .
__label__1	The angst-ridden , affluent slacker characters are more grating than engaging .
__label__2	A soggy , shapeless mess ... just a dumb excuse for a waterlogged equivalent of a haunted-house movie .
__label__2	Men in Black II has sequel-itis something fierce .
__label__1	An ungainly , comedy-deficient , B-movie rush job ...
__label__3	A combination of standard , stiff TV-style animation and snazzy-looking digital effects that do little to disguise the fact that the characters barely move .
__label__2	An unsatisfying hybrid of Blair Witch and typical stalk-and-slash fare , where the most conservative protagonist is always the last one living .
__label__2	Say this for the soundtrack , it drowns out the lousy dialogue .
__label__2	After seeing SWEPT AWAY , I feel sorry for Madonna .
__label__2	Instead of kicking off the intrigue and suspense and mystery of the whole thing , Hart 's War , like the St. Louis Rams in the Super Bowl , waits until after halftime to get started .
__label__1	A gob of drivel so sickly sweet , even the eager consumers of Moore 's pasteurized ditties will retch it up like rancid crème brûlée .
__label__2	Maudlin and melodramatic we expected .
__label__2	Boring we did n't .
__label__2	Never quite transcends jokester status ... and the punchline does n't live up to Barry 's dead-eyed , perfectly chilled delivery .
__label__3	The film 's bathos often overwhelms what could have been a more multifaceted look at this interesting time and place .
__label__4	It almost plays like Solaris , but with guns and jokes .
__label__1	A baffling misfire , and possibly the weakest movie ( Woody Allen ) has made in the last twenty years .
__label__2	It wo n't be long before you 'll spy I Spy at a video store near you .
__label__1	This film looks like it was produced in 1954 , shelved for 48 years , and repackaged for a 2002 audience .
__label__2	Propelled not by characters but by caricatures .
__label__1	There is not an ounce of honesty in the entire production .
__label__1	This extremely unfunny film clocks in at 80 minutes , but feels twice as long .
__label__2	Earnest but earthbound ... a slow , soggy , soporific , visually dank crime melodrama/character study that would be more at home on the small screen but for its stellar cast .
__label__2	The pivotal narrative point is so ripe the film ca n't help but go soft and stinky .
__label__2	For all its alleged youthful fire , XXX is no less subservient to Bond 's tired formula of guns , girls and gadgets while brandishing a new action hero .
__label__2	A predictable and stereotypical little B-movie .
__label__2	If I Spy were funny ( enough ) or exciting ( enough ) then it would be fairly simple to forgive the financial extortion it 's trying to reap from the moviegoing public .
__label__2	Frustratingly , Dridi tells us nothing about El Gallo other than what emerges through his music .
__label__2	Places a slightly believable love triangle in a difficult-to-swallow setting , and then disappointingly moves the story into the realm of an improbable thriller .
__label__2	A very average science fiction film .
__label__1	Undone by its overly complicated and derivative screenplay , the glacier-paced direction and the stereotypical characters .
__label__3	How anyone over the age of 2 can stomach the touchy-feely message this preachy produce promotes is beyond us .
__label__1	The sort of movie that gives tastelessness a bad rap .
__label__1	The cold and dreary weather is a perfect metaphor for the movie itself , which contains few laughs and not much drama .
__label__2	The plot is straight off the shelf , the performances are television - caliber and the message of providing solace through deception is a little creepy .
__label__1	ordinary melodrama that is heavy on religious symbols but wafer-thin on dramatic substance
__label__3	A whimsical if predictable time-travel fable marred by a willful single-mindedness .
__label__2	Those who managed to avoid the Deconstructionist theorizing of French philosopher Jacques Derrida in college can now take an 85-minute brush-up course with the documentary Derrida .
__label__3	Or , you can do something fun tonight .
__label__2	Jolie 's performance vanishes somewhere between her hair and her lips .
__label__1	As with too many studio pics , plot mechanics get in the way of what should be the lighter-than-air adventure .
__label__2	Static , repetitive , muddy and blurry , Hey Arnold !
__label__1	would seem to have a lock on the title of ugliest movie of the year .
__label__3	For all of the contemporary post-colonialist consciousness that Kapur tries to bring to The Four Feathers , the oddest thing about the movie is how it winds up affirming the same damn moldy values the material has always held dear .
__label__2	When it comes to entertainment , children deserve better than Pokemon 4Ever .
__label__3	What The Four Feathers lacks is genuine sweep or feeling or even a character worth caring about .
__label__2	While Benigni ( who stars and co-wrote ) seems to be having a wonderful time , he might be alone in that .
__label__3	Yes , 4Ever is harmless in the extreme and it 'll mute your kids for nearly 80 minutes , but why not just treat the little yard apes to the real deal and take them to Spirited Away ?
__label__2	Preposterous and tedious , Sonny is spiked with unintentional laughter that , unfortunately , occurs too infrequently to make the film even a guilty pleasure .
__label__1	Calling this movie brainless would be paying it a compliment : it 's more like entertainment for trolls .
__label__2	None of these characters resembles anyone you 've ever met in real life , unless you happen to know annoyingly self-involved people who speak in glib sentences that could have only come from the pen of a screenwriter .
__label__1	... just a big mess of a movie , full of images and events , but no tension or surprise .
__label__1	As elegantly crafted as it often is , Anderson 's movie is essentially a one-trick pony that , hampered by an undeveloped script , ultimately pulls up lame .
__label__1	Splashes its drama all over the screen , subjecting its audience and characters to action that feels not only manufactured , but also so false you can see the filmmakers ' puppet strings .
__label__1	... has virtually no script at all ...
__label__2	Will only satisfy those who ca n't tell the difference between the good , the bad and the ugly .
__label__3	This kind of dark comedy requires a delicate , surgical touch .
__label__3	But director Danny DeVito and screenwriter Adam Resnick ( remember Cabin Boy ? )
__label__3	just pound away .
__label__2	At times , however , Dogtown and Z-Boys lapses into an insider 's lingo and mindset that the uninitiated may find hard to follow , or care about .
__label__4	Rather quickly , the film falls into a soothing formula of brotherly conflict and reconciliation .
__label__2	Screenwriters Scott Abbott and Michael Petroni have turned Rice 's complex Akasha into a cartoon monster .
__label__2	The writers , director Wally Wolodarsky , and all the actors should start their own coeducational fraternity : Kappa Rho Alpha Phi .
__label__1	Bad beyond belief and ridiculous beyond description .
__label__3	The new faces are interesting , but the old story is n't , especially when it starts to seem more improvised than scripted .
__label__2	Most of the action setups are incoherent .
__label__2	Liman , of Swingers and Go , makes his big-budget action film debut something of a clunker as he delivers a long , low-heat chase , interrupted by a middling car chase .
__label__2	... surprisingly inert for a movie in which the main character travels back and forth between epochs .
__label__2	The problem is n't that the movie hits so close to home so much as that it hits close to home while engaging in such silliness as that snake-down-the-throat business and the inevitable shot of Schwarzenegger outrunning a fireball .
__label__2	Dreary , highly annoying ... ` Some Body ' will appeal to No One .
__label__3	There 's something deeply creepy about Never Again , a new arrow in Schaeffer 's quiver of ineptitudes .
__label__2	The problem with concept films is that if the concept is a poor one , there 's no saving the movie .
__label__2	Sorry , Charlie
__label__2	A painfully leaden film destined for pre-dawn cable television slots .
__label__2	Blessed with immense physical prowess he may well be , but Ahola is simply not an actor .
__label__2	And in truth , cruel as it may sound , he makes Arnold Schwarzenegger look like Spencer Tracy .
__label__1	The cartoon that is n't really good enough to be on afternoon TV is now a movie that is n't really good enough to be in theaters .
__label__2	Shocking only in that it reveals the filmmaker 's bottomless pit of self-absorption .
__label__2	This pep-talk for faith , hope and charity does little to offend , but if saccharine earnestness were a crime , the film 's producers would be in the clink for life .
__label__2	All ends well , sort of , but the frenzied comic moments never click .
__label__1	If this is the Danish idea of a good time , prospective tourists might want to consider a different destination -- some jolly country embroiled in a bloody civil war , perhaps .
__label__1	Formula 51 is so trite that even Yu 's high-energy action stylings ca n't break through the stupor .
__label__3	Only a few minutes elapse before the daddy of all slashers arrives , still with the boiler suit and white mask , which look remarkably clean for a guy who has been mass-murdering since 1978 but has never been seen doing laundry .
__label__2	When the painted backdrops in a movie are more alive than its characters , you know you 're in trouble .
__label__2	( Two ) fairly dull -- contrasting and interlocking stories about miserable Scandinavian settlers in 18th-century Canada , and yuppie sailboaters in the here and now .
__label__2	The film is really not so much bad as bland .
__label__2	The central story lacks punch .
__label__2	Though Ganesh is successful in a midlevel sort of way , there 's nothing so striking or fascinating or metaphorically significant about his career as to rate two hours of our attention .
__label__1	This may be the dumbest , sketchiest movie on record about an aspiring writer 's coming-of-age .
__label__2	Succumbs to the same kind of maudlin , sentimental mysticism that mars the Touched by an Angel school of non-God spiritual-uplift movies .
__label__4	A harmless and mildly amusing family comedy .
__label__2	What was subtle and mystifying in the novella is now broad and farcical .
__label__2	The kids often appear to be reading the lines and are incapable of conveying any emotion .
__label__4	`` Men in Black II , '' has all the earmarks of a sequel .
__label__3	The story is less vibrant , the jokes are a little lukewarm , but will anyone really care ?
__label__2	Sucking all the ` classic ' out of Robert Louis Stevenson 's Treasure Island and filling the void with sci-fi video game graphics and Disney-fied adolescent angst ...
__label__3	This 72-minute film does have some exciting scenes , but it 's a tad slow .
__label__2	While Super Troopers is above Academy standards , its quintet of writers could still use some more schooling .
__label__2	A mix of velocity and idiocy , this ruinous remake lacks the brawn -- and the brains -- of the 1970s original .
__label__2	The low-budget Full Frontal was one of the year 's murkiest , intentionally obscure and self-indulgent pictures , and Solaris is its big-budget brother .
__label__2	The plot is very clever , but Boyd weighs it down with too many characters and events , all intertwined and far too complicated to keep track of .
__label__3	The film seems all but destined to pop up on a television screen in the background of a scene in a future Quentin Tarantino picture
__label__1	A free-for-all of half-baked thoughts , clumsily used visual tricks and self-indulgent actor moments .
__label__1	Apallingly absurd ... the chemistry or lack thereof between Newton and Wahlberg could turn an Imax theater into a 9 '' black and white portable TV .
__label__2	A well acted and well intentioned snoozer .
__label__1	The smug , oily demeanor that Donovan adopts throughout the stupidly named Pipe Dream is just repulsive .
__label__5	Must-see viewing for anyone involved in the high-tech industry .
__label__1	Others may find it migraine-inducing , despite Moore 's attempts at whimsy and spoon feeding .
__label__3	Despite its good nature and some genuinely funny moments , Super Troopers suffers from a bad case of arrested development .
__label__1	It 's hard not to feel you 've just watched a feature-length video game with some really heavy back story .
__label__1	I watched the brainless insanity of No Such Thing with mounting disbelief .
__label__1	This limp gender-bender-baller from a first-time director and rookie screenwriter steals wholesale from that 1982 's Tootsie , forgetting only to retain a single laugh .
__label__2	Kwan makes the mix-and - match metaphors intriguing , while lulling us into torpor with his cultivated allergy to action .
__label__3	While obviously an extremely personal work , it remains inextricably stuck in an emotionally unavailable rut .
__label__2	Any movie this boring should be required to have ushers in the theater that hand you a cup of coffee every few minutes .
__label__2	Like a marathon runner trying to finish a race , you need a constant influx of liquid just to get through it .
__label__4	I loved looking at this movie .
__label__2	I just did n't care as much for the story .
__label__3	Has all the poignancy of a Hallmark card and all the comedy of a Gallagher stand-up act .
__label__2	It does n't do the original any particular dishonor , but neither does it exude any charm or personality .
__label__1	fear dot com is so rambling and disconnected it never builds any suspense .
__label__3	A gorgeous , somnolent show that is splendidly mummified and thoroughly unsurprising .
__label__1	It feels like a community theater production of a great Broadway play : Even at its best , it will never hold a candle to the original .
__label__3	The film apparently takes place in a fantasy world where people in hotel hallways recite poetry in voice-over instead of speaking to each other .
__label__3	The element of surprise might be the only thing Femme Fatale has going for it .
__label__2	It 's the kind of movie you ca n't quite recommend because it is all windup and not much of a pitch , yet you ca n't bring yourself to dislike it .
__label__2	Maybe it 's asking too much , but if a movie is truly going to inspire me , I want a little more than this .
__label__2	A graceless , witless attempt at mating Some Like It Hot with the WWII espionage thriller .
__label__2	The story and characters are nowhere near gripping enough .
__label__2	Based on a David Leavitt story , the film shares that writer 's usual blend of observant cleverness , too-facile coincidence and slightly noxious preciousness .
__label__3	Just like every other Seagal movie , only louder and without that silly ponytail .
__label__3	To enjoy this movie 's sharp dialogue and delightful performance by Jolie and Burns , you have to gloss over the no sense ending .
__label__1	National Lampoon 's Van Wilder could be the worst thing to come out of National Lampoon since Class Reunion
__label__2	This is a great subject for a movie , but Hollywood has squandered the opportunity , using it as a prop for warmed-over melodrama and the kind of choreographed mayhem that director John Woo has built his career on .
__label__1	Ecks this one off your must-see list .
__label__2	Overall , the film misses the brilliance of Jelinek 's novel by some way .
__label__2	It settles for being merely grim .
__label__1	The Irwins emerge unscathed , but the fictional footage is unconvincing and criminally badly acted .
__label__3	It 's not thirsty , consuming passion which drives this movie .
__label__1	No , it 's the repetition of said behavior , and so Children of the Century is more mindless love than mad , more grating and boring than anything else .
__label__2	Just because it really happened to you , honey , does n't mean that it 's interesting to anyone else .
__label__3	Just like the deli sandwich : lots of ham , lots of cheese , with a sickly sweet coating to disguise its excrescence until just after ( or during ) consumption of its second half .
__label__3	Every so often a movie comes along that confirms one 's worse fears about civilization as we know it .
__label__3	The New Guy is one of them .
__label__1	This is n't a `` Friday '' worth waiting for .
__label__3	Everything that 's worthwhile about Collision Course can already be seen on television .
__label__3	If this movie belonged to a sorority , it would be called Beta Alpha Delta .
__label__3	Not a cheap slasher flick , as the subject matter would suggest , but is a little like a nature film , showing a patient predator and his foolish prey .
__label__2	Uneasy mishmash of styles and genres .
__label__2	Herzog is obviously looking for a moral to his fable , but the notion that a strong , unified showing among Germany and Eastern European Jews might have changed 20th-Century history is undermined by Ahola 's inadequate performance .
__label__2	All in all , there 's only one thing to root for : expulsion for everyone .
__label__2	Beyond a handful of mildly amusing lines ... there just is n't much to laugh at .
__label__3	Secret Ballot is too contemplative to be really funny .
__label__2	The film 's center will not hold .
__label__2	Myers never knows when to let a gag die ; thus , we 're subjected to one mind-numbingly lengthy riff on poo and pee jokes after another .
__label__2	Too lazy to take advantage of its semi-humorous premise .
__label__2	A great ending does n't make up for a weak movie , and Crazy as Hell does n't even have a great ending .
__label__2	Dialogue-heavy and too cerebral for its own good -- or , at any rate , too cerebral for its racy subject matter .
__label__2	Its over-reliance on genre conventions , character types and formulaic conflict resolutions crushes all the goodwill it otherwise develops .
__label__2	As an actor , The Rock is aptly named .
__label__2	A mostly tired retread of several other mob tales .
__label__1	I wish I could say `` Thank God It 's Friday '' , but the truth of the matter is I was glad when it was over .
__label__2	Nothing about it fits .
__label__2	As it abruptly crosscuts among the five friends , it fails to lend the characters ' individual stories enough dramatic resonance to make us care about them .
__label__2	Somehow we 're meant to buy that this doting mother would shun her kids , travel to one of the most dangerous parts of the world , don fatigues and become G.I. Jane .
__label__2	The cast is so low-wattage that none of the characters comes off as big ... and the setting remains indistinct .
__label__2	Consider the title 's clunk-on-the-head that suggests the overtime someone put in to come up with an irritatingly unimaginative retread concept .
__label__2	The movie quickly drags on becoming boring and predictable .
__label__2	I tried to read the time on my watch .
__label__1	The film makes a tragic error by going on for too long , trying to mirror every subsequent event in Chinese history : war , revolution , Communism , etc. .
__label__3	Johnson has , in his first film , set himself a task he is not nearly up to .
__label__2	Ultimately the project comes across as clinical , detached , uninvolving , possibly prompting audience members to wonder , ` What 's the point ? '
__label__2	The two leads are almost good enough to camouflage the dopey plot , but so much naturalistic small talk , delivered in almost muffled exchanges , eventually has a lulling effect .
__label__2	The film meant well in its horse tale about freedom , but was n't able to reach the heart because it was too overbearing .
__label__1	The movie is as far as you can get from racy , to the point where it almost stops the blood flow to your brain ; it has a dull , costumey feel .
__label__2	Once the audience figure out what 's being said , the filmmaker 's relative passivity will make it tough for them to really care .
__label__2	There 's nothing provocative about this film save for the ways in which it studiously avoids provoking thought .
__label__3	It seems just a long , convoluted ploy to get men into drag -- period drag , no less .
__label__2	The premise for this kegger comedy probably sounded brilliant four six-packs and a pitcher of margaritas in , but the film must have been written ... in the thrall of a vicious hangover .
__label__1	Even by dumb action-movie standards , Ballistic : Ecks vs. Sever is a dumb action movie .
__label__2	The film equivalent of a toy chest whose contents get scattered over the course of 80 minutes .
__label__2	Just a bloody mess .
__label__2	Creepy but ultimately unsatisfying thriller .
__label__2	You would be better off investing in the worthy EMI recording that serves as the soundtrack , or the home video of the 1992 Malfitano-Domingo production .
__label__3	Has something to say ... but it is a statement and issue worthy of a much more thoughtfulness and insight than a melodramatic and wholly predictable thriller .
__label__2	Bears is bad .
__label__2	Not ` terrible filmmaking ' bad , but more like , ' I once had a nightmare like this , and it 's now coming true ' bad .
__label__3	As is most commonly case with projects such noble and lofty ambitions , the film is less poetic than simply pretentious .
__label__2	George , hire a real director and good writers for the next installment , please .
__label__2	For a film about two mismatched buddies , Crystal and De Niro share little screen time and even less chemistry .
__label__3	However clever Nelson has been in providing variation within the confines of her structure and staging , the question remains whether this should , indeed , have been presented as a theatrical release .
__label__2	Extreme Oops - oops , ops , no matter how you spell it , it 's still a mistake to go see it .
__label__2	What could and should have been biting and droll is instead a tepid waste of time and talent .
__label__1	What will , most likely , turn out to be the most repellent movie of 2002 .
__label__2	... too dull to enjoy .
__label__3	A morality tale whose thought-provoking potential is hampered by a made-for-TV look , rigid performances and an asinine ` twist ' that brazenly rips off The Sixth Sense .
__label__2	Here 's a self-congratulatory 3D IMAX rah-rah .
__label__5	Eastwood is an icon of moviemaking , one of the best actors , directors and producers around , responsible for some excellent work .
__label__2	But even a hero can stumble sometimes .
__label__2	A sophomoric exploration of ` life problems ' most people solved long ago -- or at least got tired of hearing people kvetch about .
__label__4	It 's all very cute , though not terribly funny if you 're more than six years old .
__label__2	The impact of the Armenian genocide is diluted by too much stage business in the modern day .
__label__2	Going to the website may be just as fun ( and scary ) as going to the film .
__label__1	Lacking gravitas , MacDowell is a placeholder for grief , and ergo this sloppy drama is an empty vessel .
__label__1	Leave these Flowers unpicked -- they 're dead on the vine .
__label__3	Admirable , certainly , but not much fun to watch .
__label__2	For Caine Lovers only .
__label__2	A shambles of a movie -- visually unattractive , unbearably loud and utterly silly ... its hilarity is completely unintentional .
__label__1	De Niro may enjoy the same free ride from critics afforded to Clint Eastwood in the lazy Bloodwork .
__label__1	But like Bruce Springsteen 's gone-to-pot Asbury Park , New Jersey , this sad-sack waste of a movie is a City of ruins .
__label__2	No , it 's not nearly as good as any of its influences .
__label__3	A reasonably efficient mechanism , but it offers few surprises and finds its stars slumming in territory they should have avoided .
__label__3	The rest of the plot is impossible to explain without blowing whatever tension there is , although it 's more comedy than suspense De Palma creates .
__label__2	Human Nature talks the talk , but it fails to walk the silly walk that distinguishes the merely quirky from the surreal .
__label__4	City by the Sea is the cinematic equivalent of defensive driving : It 's careful , conscientious and makes no major mistakes .
__label__2	But what saves lives on the freeway does not necessarily make for persuasive viewing .
__label__3	The Marquis de Sade could n't have been as dull a person as this film makes him out to be .
__label__2	What could have been a neat little story about believing in yourself is swamped by heavy-handed melodrama .
__label__3	The cast is uniformly excellent ... but the film itself is merely mildly charming .
__label__3	Drives for the same kind of bittersweet , conciliatory tone that Three Seasons achieved but loses its way in rhetorical excess and blatant sentimentality .
__label__2	A bigger holiday downer than your end-of-year 401 ( k ) statement .
__label__2	The whole thing plays out with the drowsy heaviness of synchronized swimmer wearing a wool wetsuit .
__label__2	Fairly successful at faking some pretty cool stunts but a complete failure at trying to create some pretty cool characters .
__label__2	And forget about any attempt at a plot !
__label__3	It will probably prove interesting to Ram Dass fans , but to others it may feel like a parody of the mellow , peace-and-love side of the '60s counterculture .
__label__3	Take away all the cliches and the carbon copy scenes from every drug movie we 've seen and all you have left are John Leguizamo 's cool jackets .
__label__1	It 's so full of wrong choices that all you can do is shake your head in disbelief -- and worry about what classic Oliver Parker intends to mangle next time .
__label__2	Showtime is closer to Slowtime .
__label__2	It may be an easy swipe to take , but this Barbershop just does n't make the cut .
__label__1	The Weight of Water uses water as a metaphor for subconscious desire , but this leaky script barely stays afloat .
__label__3	` How many more voyages can this limping but dearly-loved franchise survive ? '
__label__2	Despite a blue-chip cast and a provocative title , writer-director Peter Mattei 's first feature microwaves dull leftover romantic motifs basted in faux-contemporary gravy .
__label__3	Fans of the TV series will be disappointed , and everyone else will be slightly bored .
__label__1	The only element of suspense is whether the movie will change titles or distributors again before the closing credits roll .
__label__2	Barely goes beyond comic book status .
__label__2	It 's disappointing when filmmakers throw a few big-name actors and cameos at a hokey script .
__label__1	I Spy is an embarrassment , a monotonous , disjointed jumble of borrowed plot points and situations .
__label__2	It 's as flat as an open can of pop left sitting in the sun .
__label__4	An eccentric little comic/thriller deeply in love with its own quirky personality .
__label__1	Afraid to pitch into farce , yet only half-hearted in its spy mechanics , All the Queen 's Men is finally just one long drag .
__label__2	Maybe it 's the star power of the cast or the redundant messages , but something aboul `` Full Frontal '' seems , well , contrived .
__label__3	( Morgan ) , Judd and Franklin ca n't save the script , rooted in a novel by Joseph Finder , from some opportunism .
__label__3	Passably entertaining but also mechanical and joyless .
__label__2	Safe Conduct , however ambitious and well-intentioned , fails to hit the entertainment bull 's - eye .
__label__2	My response to the film is best described as lukewarm .
__label__2	Maybe I found the proceedings a little bit too conventional .
__label__2	Too timid to bring a sense of closure to an ugly chapter of the twentieth century .
__label__2	It 's push-the-limits teen comedy , the type written by people who ca n't come up with legitimate funny , and it 's used so extensively that good bits are hopelessly overshadowed .
__label__3	It 's too long , too repetitive , and takes way too many years to resolve to be a total winner .
__label__3	A sudsy cautionary tale .
__label__2	A movie that tries to fuse the two ` woods ' but winds up a Bolly-Holly masala mess .
__label__4	Mr. Wedge and Mr. Saldanha handle the mix of verbal jokes and slapstick well .
__label__2	Their film falters , however , in its adherence to the Disney philosophy of required poignancy , a salute that I 'd hoped the movie would avoid .
__label__2	Leaves you with a knot in your stomach , its power is undercut by its own head-banging obviousness .
__label__1	Watching it is rather like an overlong visit from a large group of your relatives .
__label__2	As your relatives swap one mundane story after another , you begin to wonder if they are ever going to depart .
__label__2	Unfortunately , as a writer , Mr. Montias is n't nearly as good to his crew as he is as a director or actor .
__label__2	On the right track to something that 's creepy and effective ... It 's just going to take more than a man in a Bullwinkle costume to get there .
__label__2	The only thing that could possibly make them less interesting than they already are is for them to get full montied into a scrappy , jovial team .
__label__2	One of those movies where you walk out of the theater not feeling cheated exactly , but feeling pandered to , which , in the end , might be all the more infuriating .
__label__2	... this movie has a glossy coat of action movie excess while remaining heartless at its core .
__label__1	Murder By Numbers is like a couple of mediocre TV-movie - of-the-week films clumsily stuck together .
__label__4	The film is surprisingly well-directed by Brett Ratner , who keeps things moving well -- at least until the problematic third act .
__label__2	Warmed-over Tarantino by way of wannabe Elmore Leonard .
__label__2	( Sen 's ) soap opera-ish approach undermines his good intentions .
__label__1	Showtime is one of the hapless victims of the arrogant `` if we put together a wry white man and a chatty black man and give them guns , the movie will be funny '' syndrome .
__label__2	Sushi for the connoisseurs of the macabre .
__label__1	Do n't waste your money .
__label__3	Though certainly original in form , Altar Boys requires a taste for Swamp Thing-type animation , doubled with a deafening score .
__label__3	There are n't many laughs in this interesting study of the cultural mores of Georgian Jews in Tel Aviv .
__label__2	There 's not enough to sustain the comedy .
__label__2	Like those to Rome , all roads in The Banger Sisters inevitably lead to a joke about Hawn 's breasts , which constantly threaten to upstage the woman sporting them .
__label__3	We may get the full visceral impact of a ruthless army on the warpath but no sense of the devilish complexity of the Balkans conflict .
__label__1	You 're better off staying home and watching The X-Files .
__label__2	Chaotic , self-indulgent and remarkably ugly to look at , it 's ... like a series of pretentiously awful student films strung together into one feature-length horror .
__label__3	Bears resemblance to , and shares the weaknesses of , too many recent action-fantasy extravaganzas in which special effects overpower cogent story-telling and visual clarity during the big action sequences .
__label__2	This is the type of movie best enjoyed by frat boys and college kids while sucking on the bong and downing one alcoholic beverage after another .
__label__2	Friday After Next has the same problem that Next Friday did -- it 's called Where 's Chris Tucker When You Need Him ?
__label__3	This film is full of rabbits .
__label__3	Brimful .
__label__2	But like most rabbits , it seems to lack substance .
__label__2	I weep for the future when a good portion of the respected critical community in this country consider Blue Crush to be an intelligent film about young women .
__label__2	I kept wishing I was watching a documentary about the wartime Navajos and what they accomplished instead of all this specious Hollywood hoo-ha .
__label__2	No number of fantastic sets , extras , costumes and spectacular locales can disguise the emptiness at the center of the story .
__label__1	A movie far more cynical and lazy than anything a fictitious Charlie Kaufman might object to .
__label__1	Could The Country Bears really be as bad as its trailers ?
__label__3	In a word -- yes .
__label__1	If High Crimes were any more generic it would have a universal product code instead of a title .
__label__2	Reggio falls victim to relying on the very digital technology that he fervently scorns , creating a meandering , inarticulate and ultimately disappointing film .
__label__1	The movie makes absolutely no sense .
__label__1	Its underlying mythology is a hodgepodge of inconsistencies that pose the question : Since when did dumb entertainment have to be this dumb ?
__label__2	The problem with this film is that it 's forced to make its characters idiots in order to advance the plot .
__label__1	Had anyone here done anything remotely intelligent , we all could have stopped watching long ago .
__label__2	Despite the authenticity of the trappings , the film is overblown in its plotting , hackneyed in its dialogue and anachronistic in its style .
__label__2	Murder and mayhem of this sort quickly becomes monotonous .
__label__3	The journey toward redemption feels more like a cinematic experiment than a full-blown movie .
__label__4	That Zhang would make such a strainingly cute film -- with a blind orphan at its center , no less -- indicates where his ambitions have wandered .
__label__3	The Gantzes ' interviews tend to let the guys off the hook .
__label__2	The streets , shot by cinematographer Michael Ballhaus , may be as authentic as they are mean , but it is nearly impossible to care about what happens on them .
__label__3	This is a good movie in spurts , but when it does n't work , it 's at important times .
__label__3	Parker probably thinks he 's shaking up a classic the way Kenneth Branagh and Baz Luhrmann have , but this half-hearted messing-about just makes us miss Wilde 's still-contemporary play .
__label__2	Flotsam in the sea of moviemaking , not big enough for us to worry about it causing significant harm and not smelly enough to bother despising .
__label__2	A TV episode inflated past its natural length .
__label__2	Involving at times , but lapses quite casually into the absurd .
__label__1	All these developments and challenges facing Santa weigh down the plot so heavily that they drain all the film of its energy and needlessly strain credibility .
__label__2	There are weird resonances between actor and role here , and they 're not exactly flattering .
__label__1	The unceasing sadism is so graphically excessive , the director just ends up exposing his own obsession .
__label__1	The story ... is moldy and obvious .
__label__1	It 's drained of life in an attempt to be sober and educational , and yet it 's so devoid of realism that its lack of whistles and bells just makes it obnoxious and stiff .
__label__1	Suffocated at conception by its Munchausen-by-proxy mum .
__label__2	Punish the vehicle to adore the star .
__label__2	Even if Britney Spears is really cute , her movie is really bad .
__label__2	Big Fat Liar is just futile silliness looking to tap into the kiddie sensibilities .
__label__2	Usually when I get this much syrup , I like pancakes to go with it .
__label__2	All the necessary exposition prevents the picture from rising above your generic sand 'n' sandal adventure .
__label__2	Glib , satirical documentary that fudges facts , makes facile points and engages in the cinematic equivalent of tabloid journalism .
__label__1	Gangs of New York is an unapologetic mess , whose only saving grace is that it ends by blowing just about everything up .
__label__1	An overblown clunker full of bad jokes , howling cliches and by-the-numbers action sequences .
__label__1	Without a strong script and energetic acting , Dogma films can produce the same sleep-inducing effects as watching your neighbor 's home videos .
__label__3	A mild , reluctant , thumbs down .
__label__2	Strong setup and ambitious goals fade as the film descends into unsophisticated scare tactics and B-film thuggery .
__label__2	Schindler 's List it ai n't .
__label__3	A cinematic sleeping pill of impressive potency .
__label__1	It 's an awfully derivative story .
__label__3	It 's an earnest debut full of heartfelt performances , but is ultimately let down by a story that is all too predictable .
__label__1	About as cutting-edge as Pet Rock : The Movie .
__label__2	With generic sets and B-grade special effects , Jason is about as convincing on the sci-fi front as TV 's defunct Cleopatra 2525 .
__label__2	Not sweet enough to liven up its predictable story and will leave even fans of hip-hop sorely disappointed .
__label__2	Winds up feeling like lots of other quirky movies that try to score hipness points with young adults .
__label__2	Oft-described as the antidote to American Pie-type sex comedies , it actually has a bundle in common with them , as the film diffuses every opportunity for a breakthrough
__label__3	The pacing is glacial , the screenplay is stiff as a board , and things heat up only in the movie 's final scenes .
__label__2	The premise is overshadowed by the uberviolence of the Clericks as this becomes just another kung-fu sci-fi movie with silly action sequences .
__label__2	With its hints of a greater intelligence lurking somewhere , The Ring makes its stupidity more than obvious .
__label__1	It 's painful .
__label__2	An uneven film dealing with too many problems to be taken seriously .
__label__3	Sheridan ... smoothes over sources of conflict that could have lent the film a bit more depth .
__label__1	An atonal estrogen opera that demonizes feminism while gifting the most sympathetic male of the piece with a nice vomit bath at his wedding .
__label__2	Half of it is composed of snappy patter and pseudo-sophisticated cultural observations , while the remainder ... would be more at home on a daytime television serial .
__label__2	Writer/director John McKay ignites some charming chemistry between Kate and Jed but , when he veers into sodden melodrama , punctuated by violins , it 's disastrous and Kate 's jealous female friends become downright despicable .
__label__2	( Newton ) wanders through CHARLIE completely unaware she needs to show some presence and star quality .
__label__1	Unfortunately , the picture failed to capture me .
__label__1	I found it slow , drab , and bordering on melodramatic .
__label__1	A lousy movie that 's not merely unwatchable , but also unlistenable .
__label__2	The best way to hope for any chance of enjoying this film is by lowering your expectations .
__label__2	Then lower them a bit more .
__label__3	When not obscured by the booming bass-heavy soundtrack , the conversation presents the kind of linguistic fumbling not heard since Macy Gray 's game of Chinese whispers with Mr Bean .
__label__2	Cliches are as thick as the cigarette smoke .
__label__2	A woozy , roisterous , exhausting mess , and the off-beat casting of its two leads turns out to be as ill-starred as you might expect .
__label__2	` Abandon all hope , ye who enter here ' ... you should definitely let Dante 's gloomy words be your guide .
__label__3	What begins as a seemingly brainless , bubbly romantic comedy becomes a cliche-drenched melodrama by mid-film and , by film 's end , a feminist action fantasy .
__label__2	A grim , flat and boring werewolf movie that refuses to develop an energy level .
__label__2	Birot 's directorial debut ( she co-wrote the script with Christophe Honoré ) is n't so much bad as it is bland .
__label__1	Watching the film is like reading a Times Portrait of Grief that keeps shifting focus to the journalist who wrote it .
__label__2	Enough similarities to Gymkata and Howie Long 's Firestorm that my fingernails instinctively crawled towards my long-suffering eyeballs .
__label__4	Succeeds in providing a disquiet world the long-dreaded completion of the Police Academy series .
__label__4	Christians sensitive to a reductionist view of their Lord as a luv-spreading Dr. Feelgood or omnipotent slacker will feel vastly more affronted than secularists , who might even praise God for delivering such an instant camp classic .
__label__2	If this dud had been made in the '70s , it would have been called The Hills Have Antlers and played for about three weeks in drive-ins .
__label__2	A frantic search for laughs , with a hit-to-miss ratio that does n't exactly favour the audience .
__label__3	Like a documentary version of Fight Club , shorn of social insight , intellectual pretension and cinematic interest .
__label__1	`` An entire film about researchers quietly reading dusty old letters . ''
__label__2	Pryor Lite , with half the demons , half the daring , much less talent , many fewer laughs .
__label__1	What 's at stake in this film is nothing more than an obsolete , if irritating , notion of class .
__label__2	The stories here suffer from the chosen format .
__label__2	While the mystery surrounding the nature of the boat 's malediction remains intriguing enough to sustain mild interest , the picture refuses to offer much accompanying sustenance in the way of characterization , humor or plain old popcorn fun .
__label__3	Just how extreme are these ops ?
__label__2	I regret to report that these ops are just not extreme enough .
__label__2	The actors are forced to grapple with hazy motivations that never come into focus .
__label__1	John Leguizamo may be a dramatic actor -- just not in this movie .
__label__1	The sequel has turned completely and irrevocably bizarre to the point of utter nonsense .
__label__3	Hardly makes the kind of points Egoyan wanted to make , nor does it exist as the kind of monument he wanted to build , to victims whose voices have never gained the ears of the world .
__label__2	Rainy days and movies about the disintegration of families always get me down .
__label__1	The Master Of Disaster - it 's a piece of dreck disguised as comedy .
__label__2	The film has a few cute ideas and several modest chuckles but it is n't exactly kiddie-friendly ... Alas , Santa is more ho-hum than ho-ho-ho and the Snowman ( who never gets to play that flute ) has all the charm of a meltdown .
__label__1	The stupidest , most insulting movie of 2002 's first quarter .
__label__2	It 's so underwritten that you ca n't figure out just where the other characters , including Ana 's father and grandfather , come down on the issue of Ana 's future .
__label__1	A film so tedious that it is impossible to care whether that boast is true or not .
__label__2	None of this violates the letter of Behan 's book , but missing is its spirit , its ribald , full-throated humor .
__label__1	Bad Company leaves a bad taste , not only because of its bad-luck timing , but also the staleness of its script .
__label__3	Even if it ultimately disappoints , the picture does have about a matinee admission 's worth of funny to keep it afloat .
__label__2	Fails to bring as much to the table .
__label__2	A film made with as little wit , interest , and professionalism as artistically possible for a slummy Hollywood caper flick .
__label__1	Disturbingly superficial in its approach to the material .
__label__2	If you 're not the target demographic ... this movie is one long chick-flick slog .
__label__2	I hate this movie
__label__4	An imaginative comedy/thriller .
__label__5	( A ) rare , beautiful film .
__label__5	( An ) hilarious romantic comedy .
__label__4	Never ( sinks ) into exploitation .
__label__1	( U ) nrelentingly stupid .
